The Interim
by Reilly Black
Summary: Takes place after 4x09. Elena works with Damon to break the sire bond, and tries to convince him of her genuine feelings for him. Damon struggles to do the "right thing", but that's not what Elena wants from him.
1. Hard to Control

Elena sat in the kitchen, her eyes closed in thought. That last kiss. The way he had looked at her as she got in the car. Her fingers trembled as she thought about it. It had been a week; a horrible, slow, aching week.

She got up suddenly and reached for her phone. He had told her to stay away, and technically she was not breaking that rule. Not physically, anyway.

The phone rang and rang. She couldn't make him pick up. Maybe he wouldn't.

"Elena?"

Elena jumped. Then she closed her eyes and breathed a sigh pungent with relief.

"Damon."

"Elena… is everything all right? Why are you calling me?"

"Everything's fine. I just… needed to hear your voice."

Silence.

"You shouldn't have called me." He took a deep breath.

"I know, but I miss you. I miss you so much." Damon was very quiet.

"How is Jeremy?"

"He's doing well. He's a regular Jackie Chan, I don't really need to teach him much. I guess super kung-fu instincts are part of the hunter package deal. But the practice is good for him. He may have the instincts but the actual experience is another thing."

"Good. Good, that makes me a little less terrified for his life. How has growing the mark been?"

"Well Stefan has been doing his whole track, vamp, retrieve murderers schpeal, so we're getting there. It's about halfway up his arm at this point."

Halfway there. Elena let herself stroke the phone, imagining that it could somehow connect her to Damon physically as well as verbally. 'Halfway' meant that maybe in another week he wouldn't have an excuse to hide from her anymore.

"So what will you do when it's fully grown?"

Damon paused. "I guess we'll use it to find the cure."

"You know what I'm asking. I want to see you, Damon."

"You know I want the same thing, but not until the sire bond is broken."

"The sire bond doesn't affect how I feel, Damon. Just the way I act. I told you that."

"How do you know for sure? How do you know that hybrid bonds and vampire bonds aren't completely different?"

"Why would they be? Hybrids are just vampire wolfs."

"You're forgetting that EVERY hybrid has a sire bond, whereas very, very few vampires bond to their sires. That's one indication that they might work differently. Who's to say they don't work differently in this way as well?"

Elena had not thought of that before. She gripped the phone tightly and began to pace her room. This was not going the way she wanted. She had meant to convince him, but instead he was planting his own seeds of doubt in her. They weren't as unreasonable as she had thought.

"Damon, it's just hard. I feel so strongly about you, and the idea that this feeling could be fake just doesn't seem possible to me. It's too strong, too deep. I felt something like it before as a human, but like everything else since I became a vampire, it's more intense and I really can't control it. I don't feel like its been magically planted there, though. I feel like its been there all along. So as rational as your doubt is, I don't believe you."

"Well as much as I'd like to, I can't go by how you feel right now." She could feel his pained smile in his words. "Though, it is nice to hear you say it. But we aren't going to act on anything until I'm sure, one hundred and fifty percent, that you are sire bond free and in charge of your own decisions."

"Fine, we won't act on anything. I just want to see you. Is that too much to ask for?"

Damon took a moment to consider it.

"The only way to break the sire bond is for me to never see you again," Elena was poised to argue when he continued hurriedly, anticipating her argument, "Obviously, I'm too selfish to let that happen, but I'm not going to hang around you all the time. It's not fair to you or Stefan, and it might affect your decisions. " Elena was again going to argue when he cut her off, "I'll come see you. Tonight. I missed you too, and it would be nice to talk face to face. I really never thought I'd say this, but you have to behave yourself, Elena."

Elena grinned.

"I'll try."

* * *

Damon appeared as he always did- when she was not in her room. She went downstairs to make some tea to calm her nerves at the idea of finally being near him again. When she walked into her room, he was sitting on her windowsill. She couldn't contain the smile that lit up her face. He returned her smile, but she could see how tense he was.

"I promised to behave myself. Will you please relax?"

He eyed her warily. Then he tilted his head from side to side and flexed his shoulders as he stood, putting on a show of relaxing. She laughed as she walked closer, nervously hugging her tea to herself. Maybe she should take her own advice.

"Sire bond be damned, you never listen to me when it comes to this." He hesitated at her bedpost. His eyes seemed to linger on the bed before he forced them to look around the rest of the room. He walked over and picked up her bear from among her pillows. "So you're back home now."

"With Jeremy's at the lake house, there's no need for me to stay at your house. That way Stefan could move back in and Caroline could get her guest room back." Elena wasn't sure where to sit without making him tense up again, so she decided on his usual place on the windowsill. That was fairly safe. She sipped her tea.

"I'm glad. I always liked coming to your room. It smells like you." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Elena's cheeks grew warm, wondering what she smelled like. She could only stare at him, not quite believing he was there. He was really beautiful, the pinacle of which was the arctic eyes that clashed amazingly with his dark, messy hair. Ironic that all she had to do was pick up the phone to get him to come visit. She really hadn't thought it would be that easy after the way he forced her away from the lake house.

His eyes fluttered open and locked on hers. There it was again, that magnetism between them that she had fought for too long. Damon's eyes trailed to her chest as she took a shaky breath, then hurriedly looked away. He wandered around the room, restless, probably putting distance between them. His movements reminded her of a caged jungle cat. He tossed her bear in the air and caught it as he spoke.

"How is Stefan? I haven't seen him. He just leaves the murderer vamps locked up in the shed every now and then with a note at the door to let us know they're there." His eyes watched the bear's descent and the tension flooded his body again.

"Yeah, he knows." She confirmed the unasked question. He stopped tossing the bear and looked at her again, his eyes questioning and intense. "Caroline told him." She said quietly.

"Oh." Damon waited, more irritable now.

"April freed Rebekah, who woke Kol, who locked us together in a room at the school. She was trying to get answers from us and you know how much she likes me, so she made it as uncomfortable as possible. Anyways, we ended up fighting about it. Rebekah and Kol heard the whole thing too, which is just great."

Damon eyed her with concern. He walked up and kneeled down in front of her, putting a hand on hers.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, it was awful, but it's done now. We got away from them when they were distracted fighting with each other. Now Stefan knows. He's not happy about it, but at least he knows, which was kind of a relief." Her heart was pounding again. Damon's presence soothed the aching guilt that she had been trying to repress since that conversation. She looked deep into his eyes and felt a familiar warm, fuzzy glow in her core. She stroked the back of his hand with her thumb.

"Well I'm sorry you had to talk to him on your own. I guess he's too angry with me to even see me right now."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll try to talk to him and apologize for lying to him when we were at the lake house together. "

"I don't know if I'd talk to him right now. He won't listen. I tried to tell him how you wouldn't let anything more happen between us after that, wouldn't even kiss me, but he felt pretty betrayed by our lying."

"Well, I have to try anyway." Damon let out a snort of frustration, but she knew it wasn't directed at her. She let her fingers stroke his hair the way she had wanted to when they spoke over the phone, trying to comfort him. It was soft and messy. Her touch made Damon pause, that same look of desire and pain pooling in him.

"…Don't"

She pulled her hand away reluctantly. Her cheeks felt hot again as she remembered the last time she had run her hands through his hair. His eyes searched her face, and she knew he could read her thoughts there.

"I'd better go."

Elena sat up straight.

"What? No, you just got here!"

"Yeah, well, I haven't seen you in a week, and I don't have the best self control, something you reminded me about countless times before we were together. You should try to remember that now."

"Well I've reconsidered my opinions since then, and you seem to have more control than I do as a vampire. These heightened emotions are really hard to deal with. I had no idea." Elena stood up and grabbed his arms as he turned to leave. He hung his head, and she knew her proximity weakened his resolve.

"Stay. Just a little while longer. Please?"

Damon deliberated silently. Elena wanted so badly to kiss him and wrap her arms around him, but she knew that he would leave if she did. She bit her lip and tightened her grip on his arms in an effort not to.

"Just figured that out, huh?" He smirked weakly, the decision made.

"Yeah. Caroline is really good at it. Controlling her emotions, I mean. She's not much different as a vampire than she was as a human. But me… I don't know, I never thought I'd have such trouble. I feel like a different person."

"It gets easier. Kind of. I've always had trouble with it myself." Damon grinned, whispering the last part like it was some kind of secret. She laughed at his obvious understatement, enjoying the return of playful Damon. She remembered what his image had said to her when she was hallucinating under the influence of werewolf venom. _Part of you knows that you're a lot more like me than you are like him._

"Seeing you… it makes me happy. Happier than you know. This last week has been really hard. I kind of… rely on you a lot more than I thought I did."

Damon said nothing, but his intense blue eyes were trained on hers again. At the sparkling look of fascination in his eyes, she thought he might have a harder time resisting if she tried to kiss him then. She went up on tiptoes, drawn by her attraction to his lips. His body leaned away, but he couldn't break from her stare to turn his head.

She moved her lips over his and pressed herself closer to him. Her arms went around his neck and her fingers were in his hair again, tugging and caressing. She could feel him try to resist but not wanting to. Her breathing grew harsh as she deepened the kiss and fell back on her bed, taking advantage of his surprise and pulling him down on top of her. She groaned at the feeling of him, finally a reality rather than a memory. She was beginning to coil her legs around him when he broke their kiss. Angrily he drew back, breathing hard, and rested his head against her shoulder. His hands balled into fists on either side of her head.

"Sorry." She whispered, but she did not remove her hands from his hair, kissing it and stroking it while she waited for him to lift his head and look at her. She could not tell whether his faint quivers from fury or the force of will required to regain self-control. "I said I'd behave."

"Yes you did." His voice shook as well.

"Sorry." She sighed again.

He couldn't seem to pull himself up and instead remained frozen there on top of her, trembling and stiff. Gradually, her gentle kisses and caresses relaxed him and he lay on top of her. She had no idea what he was thinking in the long silence. She merely closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling that she knew she would not have again soon.


	2. Influence

Damon hung his head, trying to avoid looking at her, but this brought him close to her chest, which posed another problem. Her skin smelled… so good. He was torn between the yearning to bite her or ravage her neck with kisses. He didn't realize he was shaking until he saw his hand, balled into a fist by her head. He couldn't look into her beautiful eyes for fear he would snap right then and there and make love to her.

"I'm sorry. I said I'd behave."

"Yes you did." Damon clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, trying to control the urge to press her into the bed with the force of his mouth and wrap her legs around him for her.

"I'm sorry." She repeated, but her fingers in his hair did nothing to calm the quaking of his body. He felt her gentle kisses on his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to lift his head into them. Then there was her body pressed against his, her soft breasts on his chest. How could he walk away from this situation?

_If you can't walk away, at least don't do anything. Don't touch her, don't lift your head, don't kiss her. Just wait until you can control it. Think about what she will think of you later if you took advantage of her under the sire bond. Yes, took advantage of her. She is not herself right now. Just keep thinking of that. _

He took deep steadying breaths, that weren't as steadying as he had hoped as they were perfumed with her scent, and tried to repress his intense desire. He imagined her face when they broke the sire bond and she realized she didn't feel that way for him and his breathing grew slower and deeper.

"Elena. I have to go." It took every ounce of strength he had to say it steadily and convincingly. He started to lift himself off of her.

"No, Damon, stay the night. Just sleep with me. Really, I won't do anything, I double, triple pinkie promise." She grinned up at him and held her pinkie between them. He snorted at her in disbelief and continued to pull himself off of her. Suddenly, with a whirl of wind, he was falling into her bed and she was straddling him. When he recovered from his shock, he grabbed for her to undo her maneuver with his own vampire speed, but she was prepared for this and quickly pulled her upper body out of his reach. He tried again, but this time she pushed off from the bed and, in the blink of an eye, hauled him under the sheets and was snuggling up against his chest. He had never been the recipient of such an innocent use of vampire speed. It usually ended with something torn off or bleeding or broken, but now this lovely girl was nuzzling his chest and unbuttoning his shirt.

"Elena!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and held her at arms length, breathing hard already at the prospect of being in bed with her. "Do you understand what you'll think of me if I do this with you? Later, when the sire bond is broken? Do you understand what I'll be if we do this? Can you please try to think of things from my perspective?" Elena looked hurt and guilty, as though she had not thought of this before. He was shaking again from the anger and the lust he could barely contain. He tried to take deep breaths to steady himself, but her sheets and her pillows and her body- the smell was too much, all around him. He had to get out of there. He launched himself out of the bed with vampire speed, slamming his hands hard against the door, gasping for air. The smell was less intense here.

"Damon, I mean it. Like I said, I rely on you a lot more than I thought and I missed you so much this week. There were so many times when I needed you and you weren't there. So many times when I wanted to call you and hear your voice but I didn't, or I couldn't because you told me to stay away from you. It was only when I rationalized it to myself that I felt that I could call you, since I wasn't physically breaking your command." Her voice broke in anguish. _Is she crying?_ She was sitting up in the bed, slumped in defeat, her hands grasping the comforter. Tears started to slide down her face. Damon growled in frustration and slammed his hands against the doorframe. Elena jumped and a sob escaped her throat in her surprise.

The sound of her crying immediately steadied him.

"Elena," His tone was soft, soothing, as he turned to her. He carefully approached her bed and sat next to her over the sheets. Her face was the picture of pain. Why was she so beautiful when she was sad? "I really don't have very good self control. You know it. So why are you asking me to do this? And why were you unbuttoning my shirt if you just want to sleep?" He cocked his eyebrow, trying to regain his playfulness and make her laugh. She looked even more miserable at that, though.

"I just wanted to feel your skin against me. It comforts me. Damon, I don't have anyone else that I trust the way I trust you. Why are you trying so hard to keep me away?" Another sob escaped her and tears poured down her face. She was crying really hard. He knew that this extreme response was due to her vampirism, but it still stunned him. He sighed and stroked her cheek. She immediately began to calm down at his touch, her sobs quieting to sniffles. He was amazed at his power over her. She was so emotional now. They really were similar.

"Aaah…." He lifted his head and looked at the ceiling, praying he wasn't making the wrong decision. But he couldn't let her cry, not because of him. "Alright. One night. And no funny business. I'm serious! I will leave if you try anything." He smirked at her, waggling his finger in a very bossy way. She giggled and looked so relieved that he was staying. Again, he was awed that she cared this much for him. Then he felt a pang. _Its only because of the sire bond._

More somber, he slowly climbed into bed next to her. She hastily scooted over to make room for him and then wrapped her arms around him the moment he lowered his body next to her. She quickly buried herself in his arms, her forehead resting against his chest. She breathed out a moan of happiness. He swallowed hard at the sound, trying not to get excited, not when she was close enough to feel it. She took a shaky breath that was subtly different from her sobs. Her hand began to slip into his shirt. He swallowed again.

"Elena… stop." She looked up at him, her big brown eyes faking innocence.

"What?"

He let out a breathy laugh, rubbing one hand over his face. He was exasperated, turned on, and frustrated. He opted to ignore her actions, closing his eyes and letting his head fall to the pillow. She hugged him tightly, moving around restlessly until she got comfortable. _My best shot at getting through this is to pretend I'm tired and just stay still._

Eventually she settled down and he heard the shift in her breathing as she fell asleep. When he was sure she was asleep, he opened his eyes and looked at her. She was really irresistible when she was sleeping, her lips barely parted, her alluring eyes fluttering under their lids. Her smooth skin shimmered on her chest as it rose and fell peacefully, a soft sheen of moonlight reflecting off of it. He let himself drink in this image, burning it in his brain. This is what he had wanted for so long, and now he had to fight her for it. More amazingly, she fought him for it. He had never thought that they would be in this situation. Of course, it was all bittersweet because of that one huge pressure hanging over their heads: the sire bond.

He was suddenly incredibly angry. He finally, after all the bloodshed, all the loss, all the sacrifice, the almost moments, the guilt, the convincing and the giving in, was here in the exact place he had been struggling so hopelessly to get to, and the sire bond ruined it.


	3. Help

Stefan was stalk still, listening to the sounds of the woods; the chirping, the rustling of the breeze in the leaves, the crunching of pinecones under squirrels' feet. Then he moved too quickly to be seen, and the snap of a bunny neck echoed in the vacuum of the forest ambience.

"Brrrr, every time I see you do that it just… gives me chills." Damon's voice interrupted is feeding. Stefan spun around, his eyes a bloody red. His expression darkened at the sight of his brother. He ignored him and turned back to his rabbit. When he was finished he let the remains fall and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What do you want, Damon?" It was said with such malice that the questioning part was more of a challenge.

Damon shifted uncomfortably.

"I want to apologize. I couldn't send her away right away, and I lied to you about it. But you have to know that nothing happened between us after we knew-"

"Yeah, Elena already tried to convince me of that part." Stefan turned to glare at his brother, his eyes molten steel.

"Well its true." Damon said quietly.

"The problem is that I no longer trust what you say, Damon, and I sure as hell can't trust what she says or does anymore, not with that damn sire bond influencing her every move. How do I know you didn't tell her to tell me that?" Stefan's jealousy poisoned his words.

"Because, for all of my faults, I am not a rapist, brother." Damon spat at him. Stefan recoiled. "I wouldn't touch her if it wasn't her choice to be touched. That's what you're accusing me of."

Stefan released a deflated sigh. He looked around the woods, at a loss for words.

"I just can't handle this. You slept with my girlfriend."

"EX-girlfriend-"

"We were broken up for one day, Damon!" Stefan shouted. Damon looked at the ground at the sound of his brother's pain. "You both got right to it. Both of you." Stefan looked bewildered and hurt, like he couldn't believe what was happening. "Both of you." He whispered, looking past Damon into a memory. Damon was silent.

"I'm am sorry. But you know I didn't know what was happening to her, otherwise I would never have let it happen."

"Yeah, well, what's done is done." Stefan turned to leave.

"She isn't in control right now, Stefan." Damon was pained to admit, "She isn't handling her emotions. They're too strong for her. So you have to the things that you did when you were first turned and forgive her. If I can't be around her, then you have to. Otherwise I'm going to be around, because I'm not letting her suffer alone right now."

Stefan stopped, his fists clenched at his sides. He whirled on his brother.

"You stay away from her. Stay away from her until she's human and she can tell you to your face exactly what she thinks of you." Stefan growled. Damon was taken aback.

"You think she's going to hate me, don't you?" Damon could barely say the words, his worst fear.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Stefan said quietly, a righteous fire in his eyes. Damon took an unsteady breath.

"Look, you knew when she was lying on that metal table in the morgue that this transition was not going to be easy. We both did. Well this is it, brother. This is the hard part. You can't abandon her right now, no matter how much she hurt you. You knew that she would do something like this."

"We both did. But you _let_ it happen! You didn't protect her from herself because you were too selfish to say no." Stefan pointed an accusing finger. Damon let a low growl slip. Stefan held his fiery gaze for a few more seconds, then turned and vamped off into the woods. Damon reeled from Stefan's accusation, guilt and doubt surfacing in him in the absence of his brother's judging eyes.

* * *

"So can we, like, brawl with Jeremy now? Is he that strong?" Caroline was bored, and when she was bored she was talkative.

"Yes, but I wouldn't. He stabbed me in the neck. It wasn't pleasant." Elena steered Damon's car up the windy dirt road. She was concentrating very hard on the road. She wasn't an experienced driver, but vampire instincts definitely helped. Caroline looked at her nervously as she nearly overturned on a small cliff. On the other hand, vampire strength was still difficult for her to judge and made driving slightly more dangerous. So all in all, she was currently an ok driver, but she was driving Damon's Camaro, his baby, so she was going to be extra careful.

She had found it outside her house that morning. He left it for her. She took it as a sign he wanted to see her again.

"Well isn't that what we're going up there to do?" Caroline pressed, confused.

"Yes, I'm just saying that this isn't going to be easy or fun. More like life-threateningly dangerous." Elena corrected her. Caroline absorbed that information a moment.

"So how was seeing Stefan?"

"How do you think it was, Caroline?" Elena's tone was heavy with frustration. "You told him."

"For your own good, Elena! This sire bond is unpredictable, and Damon did NOT do what he told Stefan he was going to do. I assumed the worst, and I was trying to protect both of you." Caroline burst out. Clearly she had been dying to defend herself since she spoke to Stefan.

"Except that Damon was being a perfect gentleman. I just wouldn't let him tell me what Stefan wanted him to tell me." Elena reminded her patiently.

"How was I supposed to know he was behaving himself? It is _Damon_."

"He was. Damon is a lot more noble than you think he is, Caroline."

"Um, do you remember what he did to me? Do you remember that he almost killed me twice and used me as a human blood bag for weeks? You're acting like you've completely forgotten that." Caroline looked at her with something close to disgust.

"Yeah, and he also protected you from Tyler when he was changing and took a werewolf bite in your place, one that almost killed him. Or don't you remember that?" Elena grew prickly. Caroline was almost stunned into silence. Almost.

"I just don't think he's changed as much as you think he has." She had to get the last word in.

Elena rolled her eyes. It was all stubborn, self-destructive Damon's fault. He never showed people who he really was because he wanted to be seen as the bad guy. He didn't explain his actions, especially when it mattered; he just let people judge him for the worse. Elena knew better, especially now when she was throwing herself at him and he kept denying her.

It was another hour before they cautiously rolled into the driveway. As they were unbuckling their seat belts, Bonnie burst out of the doors, waving her arms at them. At first Elena thought she was excited to see them. Then she saw the look of panic on Bonnie's face.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked, alarmed.

"Go back before he sees you!" Bonnie whispered loudly.

"Too late for that." The chilling British accent and accompanying false smile caused Elena to stop in her tracks. Caroline slammed the door to Damon's car with incredible force.

"You bastard!" Caroline screamed, and Elena just barely caught her in her arms as she vamped past her, arms outstretched for Klaus' neck. Elena held onto her shoulders from behind, but the girl was strong. Caroline's eyes were bloody with rage, her fangs extended in a snarl.

"Elena, let go of me!" She demanded.

"Caroline you did what you thought was best for me, believe me, this is best for you."

"He killed her! He killed Tyler's mother! Bastard!"

Klaus cocked an eyebrow, amused at her struggling. Arms clasped behind his back, he took a few steps towards them, his usual dominant, arrogant attitude obvious in his swagger.

"Love, he was planning a coup. He needed to be punished. He knew the risks." He surveyed her from beneath his heavy brows, his smile melting into something very dangerous.

"You're a monster!" Caroline screamed at him.

"Of course I am." Klaus dismissed her with a look. "What are you two doing up here?" He directed his question at Elena.

"We came to help." Elena kept it simple, still trying to hold a wildly flailing Caroline back. Caroline pummeled her in the stomach accidentally, and Elena's breath escaped her, loosening her grip for a split second that Caroline took full advantage of. She burst from her arms, but Klaus was prepared. In a movement too quick to see, Caroline was pinned to the cabin wall, both her hands held above her head by one of Klaus's arms.

"Come now, Love, don't make the same mistakes Tyler did. I wouldn't want to have to kill something so beautiful." Klaus smiled, his eyes pinning her to the rough wood wall as much as his hand.

Caroline stared at him, her lips curling in disgust. She shoved him off of her with a pretty vicious kick and stalked away behind the cabin. Elena exchanged a glance with Bonnie, unsure how to proceed.

"Damon and Jeremy are in the back. I came up to… speed the process along. Does it really take a week to kill a few vampires?" Klaus finished in exasperation. Then he looked at them with cool disregard. "And just how do you expect to help? Are you offering yourselves as sacrifices for the greater good? Might render all this pointless if you martyr yourself, Elena."

"We're here to turn vampires and wrestle and anything else that we need to do. It's a weekend, so we aren't missing school."

"Wouldn't want that, would we? Not if you're going to return to the land of the living." Klaus lifted his eyebrows in a smirk over her very human concern. Elena watched him as she walked past him as she might have watched a tiger with human blood dripping from its teeth.

Damon and Jeremy were standing there, fretfully staring at the spot where she emerged, probably waiting to see if she was ok too. Caroline was huffing and mumbling to herself, her arms crossed. She kicked a pinecone about a mile off into the forest.

Damon visibly relaxed when she rounded the corner.

Suddenly, Elena could not take another step. _We'll kill vampires… without you. _She couldn't come any closer.

"Damon," She called, "Tell me you want me to help you and Jeremy kill vampires."

Realization overcame the confusion on Damon's face. Then his eyes set in a steely resolve.

"No."

"Damon!" She was so irritatated with this sire bond.

"No, Elena, I don't want you involved. It's too dangerous."

"Let me make my own decisions! I'm serious! I'm going to be so angry with you if you don't give me back my free will to do this."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"You really think that's going to work with me? You've been angry at me a million times before, Elena, its nothing new. Go back home." He said the last three words forcefully and she immediately felt her body trying to tug her back to the car.

"Damon, I swear to god-"

"God, just let her come over here. How humiliating. Stop abusing the sire bond, Damon." Caroline snapped at him. "It's not that dangerous. Four vampires and a witch against one little hunter is pretty overkill. She'll be fine." Elena felt a burst of gratitude towards Caroline and immediately decided that her uneasy decision to bring her had not been a stupid mistake all along.

Damon seethed at Caroline for a moment before muttering, "You'd be surprised."

"All right, I want you to come over here, Elena." He called to her testily.

"Thank you, Caroline." Elena said pointedly as she approached, shooting a black look at Damon. Damon rolled his eyes and launched himself at Jeremy, who immediately flipped him over his back and brought a pointy steel thing close to Damon's heart. Damon pushed Jeremy's hand out of the line of his heart with some difficulty, hopping back on his feet and aiming a kick at his chest. Jeremy ducked to the side and pulled his foot down to knock him off balance. Damon was not easily knocked off balance and ducked as Jeremy swung again at his heart.

"Jeremy! Careful!" Elena scolded. Jeremy laughed at his sister.

"Shouldn't you be saying that to him?"

"He's not trying to kill you." She exclaimed as Jeremy got very close to staking Damon again.

"You weren't here yesterday." Jeremy grunted as he fell to the ground to avoid Damon's lunging grasp.

"Why, what happened?" Elena asked, a warning in her tone.

Damon stopped fighting and looked at her with a smirk. "He was being a punk. He went for a real wood stake. I may have…" He spun to avoid Jeremy's punch, "nipped at him a little bit."

"Damon!" Elena wondered faintly how they had not killed each other yet. She should have come up sooner.

"He heals almost as fast as I do. He's fine." Damon waved it off while throwing a punch.

"It's actually been pretty fun. Except for the occasional burning urge to kill him." Jeremy groaned as he tried to break free of Damon's death grip on him from behind.

"He's been doing really well at controlling his vampire slaying urges." Bonnie was suddenly by her side, smiling. "Yesterday was an exception. It gets harder for him with every vampire he kills, but I think my presence is really helping." Bonnie said shyly tucking some hair behind her ear. Elena wondered briefly what the extent of her 'presence' was. Bonnie came up halfway through the week and had missed a couple of days of school when Jeremy started getting homicidal again.

Klaus strode towards them and the two stopped battling each other. "I think it's about time for Stefan to leave us another present." Klaus' phone was at his ear.

"Stefan. I want you to find us six more vampires by tonight. I'm sending Caroline to help. Otherwise your girlfriend may not need the cure anymore." Klaus eyed Elena with a smirk.

"Oh please, you wouldn't kill Elena if you wanted to make another hybrid in your pathetic, miserable life. That's hardly a threat."

"No, but I can torture her until she goes insane. She's still alive and full of blood for the taking then." Klaus responded calmly. Damon's mouth fell open slightly and Elena felt a rush of adrenaline as though Klaus had literally cornered her with a stake to her heart. Caroline's eyes filled hate. She sped straight up to him and slapped him before speeding off. The sound of the car starting and hurtling off down the driveway was soon to follow.

"Elena, I expect you to stick close so I can make good on my promise if your other boyfriend doesn't comply by nightfall. I hope you got all that Stefan." Klaus ordered before turning on his heel, clicking off his cell, and striding up to the cabin, shutting the door behind him with a resounding thunk.


	4. Suggestion

"Elena, stay close to me." Damon was dead serious, his mouth set in a firm line. Jeremy looked between them.

"He's not touching my sister." Jeremy said darkly. Elena felt a jolt of joy that he could talk about her like that again. She remembered the pain of the last time she had been up here.

"Thanks Jer." She smiled, grateful.

Damon looked at the cabin, his hand on Jeremy's shoulder.

"He won't really do it. Stefan will do what needs to be done, and besides, he's just bluffing."

Elena gulped and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"You obviously didn't see the carnage left over when he was finished with the Hybrid rebels." Elena remembered the funeral, another funeral in the long line of memories, that had taken place only a couple of days ago, "Not to mention Tyler's mother, Mayor Lockwood. One more orphan in this cursed town."

Damon took her hand and nodded reassuringly to her. What a sweet smile, one she had only recently begun to see show up on his face. She remembered the first time she had seen it on that morning after. The ice that Klaus had breathed into her warmed at his touch.

Matt opened the door of the cabin.

"Bonnie, your soup is boiling over!" He looked a little panicked. Bonnie looked between Damon and Elena and started jogging back up to the cabin. Obviously Matt needed to be caught up on the proper things to panic over.

"Just turn it off, Matt, or move it." Elena heard her laugh at him as she walked inside. Jeremy followed Bonnie inside with a knowing look at Elena. When the door thudded shut, Elena turned to Damon and kissed him before he could protest.

"Why did you disappear this morning without saying goodbye?" She put her hands on either side of his face, making him look her in the eye. She had been worried for hours.

"I got a frantic text from Bonnie that Klaus was here." Damon gently removed her hands from his face, his smile apologetic. He started to clean up the fighting ring that he and Jeremy must have set up. A punching bag was strung up from the work shed; hand cushions lay on the ground. A scarecrow-like dummy was tilting to the side, arrows and stakes sticking out of it. Damon started pulling these arrows out and placing them on a shelf in the work shed.

"Is everything ok here? What happened?" Elena felt she had to whisper, fearful that Klaus might appear over her shoulder any second, torture tools in hand.

"I don't know. He just showed up. I'm pretty sure it has to do with Rebekah and Kol being back in the house. Maybe they're driving him into another genocidal rage. You know how siblings can be." He smirked, trying to set her at ease.

"So you didn't want me to come up here…?" Elena realized.

"No! Why would you think that?" His stunning blue eyes were furious and understanding, somehow, all at once.

"You left your car outside. I thought it was a sign you wanted to see me." Elena admitted sheepishly, feeling foolish now.

"I left it because I'm faster on foot. I just prefer to drive." Damon wrenched a particularly difficult arrow from the dummy with what Elena thought might be unnecessary force. "If Barbie doesn't wreck it." He grumbled.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"Wow, it's a full house here. Bonnie, Jeremy, Matt, you, and now Klaus. The cabin isn't that big." She mused.

Damon smiled a little. He continued to pick up stray arrows from the ground. Elena joined him. He looked sore when he bent over. Could Jeremy possibly be strong enough to make the indestructible Damon Salvatore bend over like a grandpa?

"So, where has everyone been sleeping?" Elena prodded.

"Jeremy has been shacking up with Bonnie, Matt I kicked onto the couch, and I'm in the extra bedroom. Hopefully Klaus will not be spending the night because I'm not sharing the bed."

Elena was dumbfounded. So Bonnie and Jeremy were back together. She was pleased and a little indignant as his sister that they were sleeping together. How old was he again? It seemed like he was getting so big and muscled so suddenly, he didn't seem his age. She decided not to comment on it, as she was more pleased that they were back together than irked at the thought of them sleeping together. Besides, he did seem to be doing really well with Damon, and that was probably mostly Bonnie's doing. They were almost like… friends now.

"Hey. I think you might be safer if you try to get out of here. On the off chance that Stefan can't make the quota, I would feel a lot better if you were to sneak off into the woods right about now. And maybe don't go back to your house, or mystic grill, or anywhere else that Klaus might suspect you would go." Damon said very softly to the ground, sarcastic on the last bit, as he bent to pick up an arrow. Elena stopped and stood up, fury rising up in her.

"Is that an order? Is that what would make you happy?" She asked very slowly and deliberately through clenched teeth. She challenged him to say yes. Damon regarded cautiously.

"No. Its just a suggestion." He said quietly. Then he set his arrows down. He brushed past her and walked up to join the others in the cabin. She grabbed his arm.

"Damon, don't use this sire bond against me. I know you want to protect me, but I need to make my own decisions. If my decision is to stay with you, you can't fight me on it. You know I'll have to listen to you." Elena made it very clear that there was no arguing on this point.

"Its kind of nice that you have to listen to me for once, I have a long history of nearly getting myself killed because you didn't do so." Damon arched an eyebrow, but then almost immediately promised her, "I won't."

Elena nodded in relief.

"I'm holding you to that. Just pretend you're under MY sire bond. You can't break it." She grinned at him. He snorted.

"You got it." His sarcasm was lifted by a hint of endearment as he returned to trekking up the hill to the cabin.

* * *

"So why can't you just kill these six vampires yourself if you want them so bad? Why come in here and threaten everyone?" Matt was bravely demanding of Klaus, who was lounging on the couch with his hands behind his head.

"Because I'm the biggest Bad around and I take pleasure in other people's misery." Klaus drawled sarcastically, grinning in a way that did not touch his eyes. "Because I don't do dirty work when I don't have to, I get others to do it for me." He looked directly at Elena. "Because I can." The words slithered off his tongue and his grin grew. He looked back at Matt, "Pick which one you like the best."

Elena shivered. Damon sensed it and moved between her and Klaus, his glare enough to make Klaus pause.

"Calm down, Salvatore, it's not nightfall yet. There's time to save your girl. Isn't that what you all do? Save Elena? Isn't that you all's full-time job?" Ugh, that cackle.

Elena bristled. He wasn't wrong. She was suddenly very embarrassed as they all shifted on their feet and looked at each other in silence. Why couldn't she save herself for once? She was not some little girl anymore. She was a badass vampire with badass vampire skills, damn it.

"I'll go help them. Just compel me so I have to come back." Damon rounded on her, fury blazing in his eyes.

"Oooh, stepping up to the plate, are we?" Klaus's malicious laughter echoed in the room. "Vampirism has been good to you. You were a little… flimsy as a human."

"Will you let me do it or not?"

Klaus's eyes glittered.

"Of course."

"Elena, a word." Damon steered her by her forearm back outside of the cabin. When the door thudded shut Damon turned to her.

"This is not the best plan. Remember what we discussed?"

"That was a suggestion. Mine is better."

"How?" Damon obviously thought she had snapped, pre-Klaus torture and all.

"The more vampires working on this, the sooner and more likely it will get done. You have vervain in your system. Klaus can't compel you so he doesn't know if you'll come back. I'm the only other vampire here that can go help. Tyler's in no condition to tackle this, no thanks to him."

"Oh he'll come back if _you_ have to." Klaus interrupted them, leaning on the doorway. He met Damon's eyes knowingly.

"You can go too. Elena," She made herself look him in the eyes. "if you don't have six ready-made vampires for me and Jeremy in seven hours, you will come back here and you will sit quietly and without struggle while I torture you until you no longer know your own name. Actually, strike that, you don't have to be quiet. You can scream if you want to." Klaus grinned.

Wow, was she sick of people ordering her around.

* * *

**Hey guys, can't tell you how excited I am that people are reading my stories! Tons of views so far. Clearly everyone is as affected by the TVD break as I am. Reviews motivate me to write more and update, so please don't forget to give me feedback- constructive criticism, horrified indignation, glaring continuity and grammar errors, whatever you want. Just review so I know what you're thinking and I can write what you want to read ****. That's how I stopped spelling Stefan's name wrong XD.**


	5. Hospital Stay

Damon wrapped his hand around hers and they slowed to a walk on the road near where Stefan said he would be. Sure enough, there was Damon's blue Camaro parked outside the hospital. The idea of picking people out of hospitals made her sick to her stomach, but she knew that this is where murderers were at their most vulnerable, before they were locked up in jail where they couldn't get to them easily. Or when they were pulled out of jail for getting knifed or beaten up etc. Elena held onto his hand like it was her tether between this life and the next. She felt faint. She had never turned anyone before, and she was hoping she would never have to. But yet again, she was the reason that everyone else had to do unpleasant things and work their butts off to please some maniac with a death wish for her, so she would do it. For her friends.

Damon stroked the side of her face, his concern evident. She hadn't realized that she was staring with horror at the large white brick building with expensive windows. She tried to pull the bundle of nerves wrecking her stomach into something like courage. He kissed her fervently, his lips murmuring against hers-

"You can do this. I'll show you how."

She nodded, dazed by his show of affection. She willed herself to believe in him. She liked the taste of him on her lips, it comforted her the same way his slow breathing at night did. She felt a strange prickling on the back of her neck as though someone was watching her and she spun around.

Stefan was standing behind them, badly concealed fury writhing in his expression. His eyes darted accusingly to Damon, who looked down in shame and pulled his hand out of hers.

"Are there enough?" She decided not to comment on the weirdness and got right down to business. Stefan took a moment too long to answer, as though he was considering vamping off and leaving them there.

"There's three in this hospital alone. Caroline is a hundred miles off East, taking care of two others, and then we'll have to put our heads together to find the last one. We also need to plan for time to drive up and pick up those two with the car, and time to drive back to Klaus."

"You don't have six?" Elena stared in horror. She didn't want Damon to pick some random person off the street and turn them, which she knew he would do if they got down to the wire. _That's probably why Klaus let him come. He doesn't care if I'm sane or not, he just wants me human as soon as possible._

"We'll figure something out. It was pretty short notice." Stefan glanced at Damon, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. That was one thing they had shared, a respect for all life. Damon had a very clear pyramid of whose life was important and Elena's was on top. It infuriated her most of the time, but it had also saved her life on most occasions. Stefan let her die due to that philosophy, and she still wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Stefan brushed past them, headed towards the hospital. He silently led them through the doors and into the lobby.

"Ok, there's one in the ICU, one in room 566 and one in room 127. All of them have officers outside their doors."

"Lucky for us, murderers aren't very nice people and they end up in the hospital a lot." Damon grinned at him. Stefan did not smile.

"I'll take the ICU, you two take the other two. Damon, are you going with her?"

"Elena, you know the drill, right? No need for me to be there. Ok, I've got 566." Damon asked her indelicately, responding to Stefan's venomous question. She wasn't sure why he was letting Stefan dictate how he acted around her, it was pretty out of character. Usually Damon was devil-may-care-I-do-whatever-the fuck-I-want. Maybe he was trying to prove that he hadn't been lying to him.

"Sure." She made the word as steady as possible, her stomach a twisting knot of snakes.

"Ok, team, break!" Damon lifted his hand up from the middle of their little circle where no one else had joined him. Unfazed, he headed off in one direction. Stefan went the opposite way. Elena was left wondering how either of them knew which way to go. She started walking, looking for signs to lead her to the right room.

* * *

Damon leapt up four flights of stairs to the correct level then slipped into a perfected nonchalant attitude as he scanned the signs that led to 566. When he got to the room, a sleepy guard was chatting with a nurse in front. Damon walked right up to them, grabbing the nurse.

"Excuse me ma'am, I have an emergency." He dragged the alarmed and protesting nurse down the hallway just far enough so the guard could not hear their conversation. Then he trained his piercing eyes on her.

"You will walk away and forget I was here. You will forget that patient existed."

He walked up to the guard next as the nurse escaped in a daze.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt you." He said as he approached, waving his hand in a friendly pretense. The moment the guard's eyes met his, he whispered.

"You will cause a commotion down that hall big enough for me to escape with this man on my back. A fake heart attack should do the trick." The guard nodded dully, his brown eyes glazed over. He headed slowly to the hall Damon had directed him to.

Damon slipped inside the room and pulled the shudders down. He surveyed the man barely conscious on the hospital bed and leaned over his bed to peer directly in the one good eye as it widened with surprise.

"Hey. You a murderer? Not that I care, but in case she asks."

"Yes."

"Didn't they teach you in school-" Damon ripped his wrist open, jammed it into the man's mouth, held him there through muffled screams for a few seconds, then snapped his neck, "that murder is bad?"

Looking back at the door to make sure no one had heard the commotion, he disconnected the man from all of his machines and I.V.s and hauled him up over his back. Unfortunately, he was handcuffed to the bed.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

He poked his head out of the door, hoping the guard was still in sight.

"Hey!" He whisper-yelled. The man turned his head dully at the sound.

"You in the jumpsuit! Get back here!" The guard came shambling back slowly. Damon looked around to make sure no one was watching still and then patted his pockets for a key. He found it on a key ring attached to his belt.

"Thanks, this'll be a lot quieter than smashing it open. Now get back to your original task, and will you hurry it up?" Damon admonished him and withdrew into the room.

Damon waited until _Code Blue Code Blue Room 545_ blared over the loudspeakers to haul the man over his shoulder again. From there, he vamped through the halls, down the stairs, and out through the doors to the car with relative ease. Only when the man was securely locked in the trunk of his car, did he start on his next task.

Sure enough, Elena was siting on a bench down the hall from her victim. Her hands were shaking as they worried one another and she seemed to be going through some sort of existential crisis. She couldn't even kill a bona-fied bad guy. Damon loved that about her. He was also incredibly sad that it wouldn't last unless they succeeded in turning her back into a human. He was really starting to warm to this idea of human Elena. Stefan had been right about one thing- it was definitely best for her. But he loved her, no matter what happened and what form she took, which was the difference.

"Sorry. I feel bad for him, I already betrayed his trust once. I wanted to let him win a little bit." Damon put a hand on her shoulder, shocking her out of her reverie. "Stay here."

"No, I wanted to help, Damon. There was no point in me coming if I don't help. I can do this." She looked crushed. She was losing faith in herself. She wanted to be her own hero for once, and he knew that, but he also knew that every person she killed took a little of her own soul with them. He was too far gone from it at this point for it to affect him much.

"You can help some other way, Elena, I finished with mine early anyway." Damon assured her.

"Damon, he's a person, not a snack-pack!" Elena jumped up from her seat, tears in her eyes.

"I know." He smiled gently, taking her hand in his and patting it. "It's ok that you don't want to do this. You still have a problem with death and we want to keep it that way." Damon adored those worried eyes, too often drenched with tears. Lately they were turned on him nearly as often, which he had to admit was a plus. Before she could argue anymore he started walking down the hallway to perform a similar procedure to the one he had performed upstairs.

* * *

"You lied to me."

She jumped at Stefan's voice. She would never get used to vampire speed.

"You two aren't done with each other. Not by a long shot. Did he even order you away? Or has he been coming to see you secretly? Maybe at night?"  
"No, Stefan. I never said we were done with each other. I said that I loved him." She wanted to be kind with him, but his antagonistic attitude towards Damon was making that very difficult.

"And I said that you aren't capable of knowing what you feel right now." He grabbed her hand and held it to his heart with both hands, forcing her to look his way, "Elena, I'm begging you, don't do anything _more_ that you'll regret until you know that what you're feeling is actually what you feel for him! Damon wants you too much to think in your best interest-"

"No he doesn't. He's the one who won't return my advances." She pulled her hand from his grasp. He was reminding her too much of a recent situation where she had been on the opposite end of the begging, and now all she felt was disgust.

"Yeah, it really looked like that to me." Stefan scoffed.

"I was scared. He was trying to comfort me."

"There's always an excuse, Elena. For Damon, there's always an excuse to break the rules. Especially when it comes to you. Try to remember that." Elena could see that she wasn't going to convince him of anything, so they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

Moments later, Damon came vamping down the hallway and stopped before them briefly.

"Don't stand around chit-chatting, we've got places to be." Then he vamped past them. Elena didn't bother addressing Stefan before following in Damon's footsteps.

* * *

Damon stuffed the last body rather violently into the trunk of his car. She had not expected three full-sized men to fit in there, but alarmingly, the two of them seemed to have experience packing people into car trunks. They were even arguing over logistics; head to foot to head or head to head to head. It was giving Elena a headache and not helping her recently overturned stomach. She was trying to ignore them and focus on look-out duty as best she could. Apparently, that was all she was good for.

"Will you let me do this? It's like you think you've stuffed more people into trunks than I have. " Damon swatted his brother off indignantly. Stefan looked like he might lighten up a bit at his brother's teasing, but then he noticed Elena peering at him and his mood darkened. He glanced around quickly in alarm and Elena realized it was an indirect comment on her screwing up her job again.

A couple of thunks and a click signaled the end to the argument over dead body positioning as the trunk finally, barely, closed.

"I need to get started finding the last vampire. I'll meet you at Caroline's drop spot in an hour."

"Yeah, we'll meet you there."

Stefan's eyes narrowed at him.

"Elena, you should probably come with me." Stefan turned to her like a parent would on a misbehaving child. Elena's temper flared, but she felt so guilty for acting so useless that night that she felt like she deserved the supervisor treatment.

"Is there some reason for that?" She asked, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Stefan took a long moment to consider his words carefully.

"I know you may not want to come with me, but if only for the sake of what we had, I'm asking you to trust me. I'm asking-"  
"If there's no logical reason for me to come with you, then I'm going with Damon." Elena interrupted, walking to his side and crossing her arms. She wasn't putting up with these accusations towards Damon's character anymore. Damon looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world at that moment. He shifted uncomfortably, caught in the middle of their power-struggle staring match.

"Elena, why don't you just go with Stefan. Make everyone more comfortable with the situation." He let out a long breath, his voice very soft and apologetic towards both of them. _Make everyone more comfortable._

"No. For the last time, the sire bond does not affect how I feel. Will _both_ of you get that through your heads?" She was completely fed up with this. Fed up with Damon keeping her at an arms length all the time, Stefan treating Damon like a backstabbing criminal. They were broken up when he slept with her. They were all adults, two out of three of them were very old adults. Of course she felt guilty that she had changed as a vampire and couldn't give Stefan her whole heart anymore, but they had addressed that. They did the blow out, and she listened in tears as he told her just how much she hurt him. She apologized over and over again, and she would continue to if he placed the blame in the proper place. If Stefan had a problem now, he should take it out on her, not Damon. She was the one who selfishly switched between them when neither had done anything wrong. They both had always stood by her side and protected her. Now Damon had to accept that she had chosen him, and Stefan needed to stop blaming him for her misdeeds.

Damon came around and got in the car next to her after a moment. Elena was trying to calm herself down. One hand on her head, she stared off into the woods next to the hospital, clearing her mind of all the pent up frustration. The last thing she wanted was to yell at them when she had caused all this. She really just wanted to yell at herself.

"Don't get me started on the irony that I'm suddenly the peacemaker in our sad little triangle." Damon commented. Elena didn't respond.

She couldn't look at him. She couldn't look at his angel-like face, his tousled black hair, his arresting eyes, his quirky smile, and not tell him that she loved him. She knew he didn't want to hear it until he could believe it. She believed it with her whole heart, though.

"Elena." He said gently, probing.

"Just drive." She whispered.

She could feel his shrewd eyes on her in the silence. Then the car started and Damon backed them out.

* * *

**Hey all! Thanks for sticking with me. Next chapter has some Delena smut in it finally... been seriously excited about writing that. Again, friendly reminder to review so I know what you very quiet readers are thinking. Next chapter should be up tomorrow :).**


	6. Nighttime Transgression

Under any other circumstance, an hour-long road trip with Elena would have been a chance to jump on. At the moment, he couldn't stop the nagging feeling that his brother was right and he really couldn't control himself around her. Plus, she was pretty miserable at the moment.

"Place your bets on where Stefan shops for our next murderer. My money's on insane asylum. But those are locked up almost as securely as prisons, so I could be wrong. Care to wager?"

Elena hadn't looked at him in nearly thirty minutes. He was starting to wonder if she had fallen asleep, head resting against the window like it was. Then she tucked her hair behind her ear and he realized she was just ignoring him.

Damon decided to give her the silence she wanted for a little while. Then he checked his watch.

"So far we're good on time. We have four hours before we need to meet up with Mr. Torture. 5 out of 6 vamps out of the way, I'd say our chances of failure are pretty slim. I think you'll be home before you know it."

"I'm staying at the cabin tonight. I'll only worry about Jeremy if I go back, knowing that Klaus is popping up there without warning."

Elena finally turned to look at him, and he realized that she had been crying silently, trying not to worry him. He could barely tell, but her eyes and nose were the slightest bit red. Damon was tired of seeing that.

"Elena, the thing is… that my brother's right. I'm the bad one. I'm impulsive and selfish. I slept with you too soon after you broke it off with him, and I regret that my actions caused you to defend yourself and me from your friends so often. I did a lot of stupid things too when I was first turned."

"So now you're calling sleeping with me stupid?" Elena gaped at him, his words renewing her tears.

"No! I- look, I can't bear it if you become human and you look at me like you just looked at me for the rest of my life because I didn't give my brother's opinion the benefit of the doubt."

"His opinion that you're a sexual deviant taking advantage of me because you can't control yourself? Damon, tell me you don't think that way about yourself."

"His opinion that you're not yourself right now. Stefan will never treat our relationship with respect until he knows, and I know, that you are making your own decisions, not doing what you think will make me happy. I can't blame him for being cautious after I lied to him. When my emotions were switched off, I didn't have a good track record with women. Stefan hasn't seen me in touch with my humanity since… well, since I was a human. He doesn't know what to expect from me."

"I do." Elena's lip trembled and she returned to staring out the window. Damon didn't know what to say to that, so he let it hang in the air like a delicate snowflake that they might blow away with another word.

As Damon pulled up in the parking lot of a lime green, statuesque hospital, he heard Caroline's yells.

"Elena-"

"I hear it too."

They raced out of the car, ears prickling to pick up the direction of her yells.

"I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him!" She had spotted their car driving in and she was directing them frantically to the attention of quite a spectacle. Across the street, on the sidewalk of a very public, 1950's like block of happy little houses, a man in a hospital gown and nothing more was running like the devil was on his heels. Caroline had somehow gotten handcuffed to a bike rack and was trying to smash her handcuffs off with a puny rock.

In a flash, Damon and Elena had the man covered on both sides. He skidded to a panicked halt, looking between the two of them. Elena's face twisted in disgust at the open backside of the man, exposed by the hospital gown, and on instinct she looked away.

Damon, the blood of a predator igniting in his veins, smiled malevolently at the man and then snatched him away at top speed. He brought them to a stop in the alley behind the row of pastel-colored houses, between two bushes and a fence. Only then did he feed viciously on the man's neck. When he felt his pulse slowing, he ripped his wrist open for the third time that day and forced it into his mouth. He enjoyed the look of terror in the man's eyes for a few blissful seconds before he snapped his neck with both hands.

"I just love doing that." Damon muttered to himself as he licked his lips clear of blood.

A hand on his shoulder surprised him. Elena's doe-like eyes flicked between him and the dead body.

"I'll bring the car around."

Damon was very curious as to how they had happened upon such a scene.

"What the hell happened, Barbie? You were supposed to kill him, not knock him out."

"He has a neck of steel, ok? Not my fault." Caroline bashed the handcuffs vigorously once more and they fell off. "I thought he was dead."

"You need to retake Neck-Breaking 101." Damon glowered.

"Just help me with the other one." Caroline walked through a smaller, tree-lined break in the line of houses where another hospital patient was slumped under the foliage.

"Explain to me how a sick, hand-cuffed man overpowered a not hand-cuffed, super strong vampire?"

"I had the two of them stashed back here, so I went out to the street to wait for you guys to come up. I waited for, like, forty minutes, thinking they were dead, but the moment you guys drove up he came up behind me and caught me off my guard. I think he was waiting for me to get distracted because I was pretty alert watching for you guys. I had no idea he was still alive."

"Alright, lets get this one back to the alley. I didn't hide One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest very well." Caroline hoisted the guy over her back and took off. Elena met them in the alley and they sat the two bodies up in the backseat, strapped in with seatbelts like sleeping passengers.

"Oh yes, nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan. Buckled-in dead guys that could wake up at any second in the back of my car." Damon mused out loud, surveying their handiwork.

"What would you suggest?" Caroline seethed.

"How about we get those handcuffs off the ones in the back and handcuff their feet and hands to the car so they don't kick, punch, or otherwise knock us out while we drive, turning us into a firey, rolling ball of death?"

* * *

Elena sat on the porch, staring out over the lake and thinking back over the crazy day's events. Of course, Stefan pulled through and they made it back with the 6 bodies with an hour to spare. Damon won the bet with himself that he had plagued the insane asylums for worst-scenario cases. Klaus watched while Jeremy slaughtered them, which she really shouldn't have stayed to see. She would never forget the sight of blood covering her brother's face and body as he pulled the stake out of the last vampire. Klaus promised to be back the next day to make sure the mark grew to completion by the end of it.

After that, they'd all been exhausted. Mostly everyone headed off to get ready for bed after dinner, but Elena couldn't sleep after that sight. She had to come out and sit by the lake to remind her self that there was still some peace in this crazy world. Matt had joined her for a little while, but he had gone back in to go to bed at least an hour ago.

The sun had long since set when Elena decided she should try to get some sleep for what Klaus had promised to be another horrible day. She approached the cabin, following the glow of the fairy-like lights that they had not yet taken down since the holidays.

Matt was snoring on the couch. Jeremy and Bonnie's door was closed, the light off. She didn't realize how long she had sat looking out over the water. She snuck into the bedroom that Damon had vacated for her. To her surprise, Damon was sleeping on the floor there. Matt's snores must have driven him away from the floor by the fireplace where she had originally seen him rolling out the cloth futon for himself.

She hesitated, her eye caught by the rise and fall of his bare chest. It was dusted with black hair but otherwise smooth as a white marble statue in the glow of the Christmas lights around the window. She wondered whether he was cold. He had loosed his arms, shoulders and upper chest from the confines of the sleeping bag in a way that made him look very uncomfortable. She giggled at the thought of how confining that little futon-sleeping-bag concoction must be when it had to compete with the grand king-sized bed he was used to. But he was letting her sleep in the other bed, so she was grateful. Of course, she wasn't going to sleep in it until she convinced him to too.

She lay down next to him, unzipping the bag slowly so as not to wake him. She managed to slide in next to him quietly enough as well. Very slowly, she edged closer until she could feel his body warmth all throughout her own body. She pressed even closer until their skin was touching. Damon's eyebrows drew together briefly and she froze. His face placid again, she rotated so that he was spooning her from behind. Naturally, he shifted in his sleep so that his arm draped over her waist and his nose was buried in her hair. His knees curled behind hers so that they were flush against one another.

She moved the hand that was resting on her stomach farther up her body until it was cupping her breast. Then his hand began to move on its own. He squeezed gently, rubbing his thumb over her nipple. As there was only the fabric of her tank top separating the two, she felt it prick up and electricity flooded from her breast to her sex.

With a low, soft moan, he nuzzled his nose in her hair and, drawing his other arm around her waist through the crook between her waist, her hips, and the stiff futon, pulled her tightly to his body. She felt his teeth bite sleepily on the edge of her ear, making her shiver with desire and causing her other nipple to stand to attention. She bit her lip to keep from moaning. If he really woke up and realized what they were doing, then she was in a lot of trouble.

She lightly moved her butt back into his hips to feel his hardness against her and felt another moan rise in her throat. At her stimulation there, Damon trailed his hand down to her shorts and began to stroke her clit slowly while he strengthened his other hand's grasp on her breast. The feeling of his hand through the fabric of her shorts made her immediately wet and she found herself burying her face in the sleeping bag to keep from making a sound. Silence was becoming impossible to uphold. His movements were getting too firm and decisive; he would really wake up any second. She was torn between wrenching herself away from him and letting him fall back asleep or, with how horny she was, waking him to take her chances. The decision was made for her.

"E-elena…" Damon moaned into her ear. His body tightened and she felt his head lift hesitantly.

"Elena?" Elena swiftly shifted in his arms to press her hand to his mouth. His voice was rising in volume and level of alarm with each utterance of her name. The next one would surely wake the others. Damon's penetrating, glacial eyes were staring at her with a mixture of hazy desire and sleepy confusion. He was not upset just yet.

She slowly removed her hand. When she heard his heavy breathing match up with her own, she didn't give him a chance to process the situation. Unable to contain herself any longer she replaced her hand with her mouth in a torrid kiss.

His dark eyelashes fluttered closed and his hands gripped her to him with a strength that took her breath away. She felt his hard body constrict as he flipped her onto her back and forced her into the futon with a kiss brimming with pent-up passion and need. His thighs spread hers abruptly as he adjusted himself over her. His hips ground into her sex with such power that it caused her to cry out into his mouth and wrap her legs tightly around his body. One hand gripped her thigh and travelled towards her ass while the other fisted in her hair to direct her mouth to where he wanted to ravage it. Elena, not expecting such fierce passion, gasped into his mouth and moaned without restraint.

The sound caused Damon's eyes to widen from their heavily lidded mist and he withdrew from her without any warning. His whole body slackened as he sat up on his knees to stare down at her.

"Elena? What the hell is going on?" He whispered one more time, fully awake.

* * *

**I just really, really like describing Damon killing things. Dangerous Damon is super sexy. I'm pretty sure the whole reason why he was still kind of evil in season 2 was because Julie Plec was having way too much describing Damon murder scenes. Nearly half of this chapter was Delena smut! Finally, right? I'm excited to put more of that in soon. They haven't opened Pandora's box on that quite yet. Don't forget to review! You all are so quiet. Maybe I'll stop posting so quickly if you don't review ;).**


	7. Forgiven?

Elena was panting on the floor in front of him, a sight of rosy cheeks and glazed over eyes. Damon could barely register how sexy she looked with her thighs parted and splayed over his, her hands gripping the sleeping bag for dear life while her dark, glossy hair fanned out behind her. Chest heaving, a thin sheen of sweat forming. His eyes slipped down her body to catch on the olive skin of her taught stomach revealed beneath her pushed-up tank top. He begged himself not to, but he had to look lower. Her shorts had ridden up her smooth thighs to the point where he could see red underwear peeking out at points. From his angle, he had a very good view of the area. His mouth went dry.

"Elena? What the hell is going on?" He really had thought it was a dream. Maybe that's why he had been so reluctant to wake up.

She sat up quickly, her flushed face coming incredibly close to his. "Damon… please don't stop." Her lips brushed his cheek as her breath washed over him and the words… oh those words. He was frozen in place as she kissed him lightly, her hands exploring his chest suggestively. Her tongue gently invited itself into his mouth and, before he knew what he was doing, his eyes fell shut again. With a groan, he grabbed her firm yet very soft ass with both hands and hauled her up on his lap so he could feel her where he needed her. She lifted her face from his in a gasp as he ground against her, her wide, dazed eyes meeting his before he got distracted by her silky, delicious skin and started to kiss his way down her slender neck.

Her graceful hands were in his hair again, and he knew he had no control over what was about to happen.

"Lets move onto the bed." Elena murmured into his ear, her breathing hitching as he rubbed against her clit again.

Warning flags went up all throughout Damon's head at the mention of a bed. Elena's betrayed expression from earlier that day surfaced before him and it was the equivalent of an ice-cold bucket of water being poured over him. _That's how she'll always look at you if you do this._

With colossal effort, Damon sat back, resting on his hands. He let his head hang backwards as he took deep, gulping breathes of air. In that moment, he vowed to change his life. He would do good; he would feed the starving and read to the blind, anything to have this private hell lifted. He was sure he was being punished for something.

Elena did not move from her position on his lap immediately, but eventually she slid off and sat down next to him on his sorry excuse for a bed. When he felt he had control over himself he chanced to glance at her. She looked disheveled and sexy, but also very guilty, her knees drawn protectively to her chest as she waited for him to pull himself together.

Damon stood up. He was still wearing his jeans as he did not own pajama bottoms but wanted to avoid sleeping in his boxers for just this reason. Well, he might as well have slept naked and comfortable for all the good his modesty had done.

"Why are you making this so hard for me?" He decided how he was feeling. He was pissed.

Elena's wide, bambi eyes watched him in silence. Damon began to pace as the lust continued to wear off and his brain became clear. Yes, he was angry. He had already tried to explain why this couldn't happen too many times. She knew, she just felt too strongly that he was wrong. God, was she stubborn. With a look at her guilty face he grabbed his shirt and shoved it over his head. Without breaking stride, he swung his jacket over his shoulders as he left the room and headed for the outside of the cabin. He needed some space.

He knew that Elena would follow him, but the moment he reached the cabin doors he amped up his speed and dove into the woods so she couldn't track him.

He didn't stop for a good while, until his feet had taken him back to the Boardinghouse. He skidded to a stop, wondering out loud why he had come back here. His brother hated him now more than ever. Elena wasn't staying there anymore. The only thing for him was- oh yes, his bed. Well, that was worth it.

Damon trudged at normal speed up to the house, wanting to feel the ground beneath his feet to wake him up to reality. Flashes of her tongue on his and her thighs constricting around his hips were barraging his head. He couldn't think straight. In his mind, her hands were still raking his chest with desire.

He walked into his bedroom and stripped off all his clothes. _Much better._ Elena's last moan echoed in his head. He climbed into his enormous, overly comfortable bed and lay down with an audible sigh of comfort.

As he lay there with his eyes closed, remembering how amazing it had felt to drag her up on his lap and wreak havoc on her supple lips, a familiar smell drifted towards him. He sat up on his elbows, looking around in confusion. Surely, she couldn't have followed him here.

Elena was nowhere to be seen, but that was definitely her scent. He wasn't a bloodhound, though. He had no idea where it was coming from. Then it dawned on him that he hadn't slept in his bed in over a week, and the last time he had slept here Elena was with him. She was being her usual stubborn self, refusing to let him wish her away and sleeping in his bed. _At least then she was still fully clothed and on top of the covers. _

Damon carefully pulled the pillow that her lovely head had rested on to his nose and inhaled deeply. Yes, this was her scent. She smelled like roses and fresh bread. He curled it in his arms and closed his eyes, his mind quieting instantly. He still could not believe his hellish luck that he had just run off from her after she threw herself on him and was instead cuddling a pillow that smelled like her.

* * *

Elena woke up in a horrible mood. How could Damon have just left like that, leaving her with no idea what he was thinking or whether he would forgive her? She was having the absolute worst time trying to control her feelings. She had no idea what had possessed her last night. Vampire emotions were worse than twenty shots of caffeine. Her only hope at getting him to forgive her was to remind him of how much trouble she was having controlling herself.

Elena groaned and buried her head under the covers, wanting to hide and never come out. How could she have done that? She practically molested him in his sleep. She couldn't face him.

She had responsibility, however, and Klaus would soon deign to show his face. She finally dragged herself out of bed and pulled some spare clothes from years ago out of the closet.

Elena emerged from the bathroom, teeth and hair brushed, and stopped dead in her tracks. Damon's penetrating eyes met hers over Bonnie's shoulder. Her breathing kicked up and her cheeks reddened as she stared in horror at him. His expression did not change as he spoke to Bonnie and his eyes flicked away from hers after another moment. Feeling like Medusa had released her from her gaze, she started shakily walking again to sit down on a chair by the fire and try to remember what her currently blank mind had wanted her to do. Breakfast. That was the next step in this awful morning. Reluctantly, she got back up.

"Do- do you need any help?" Elena asked Bonnie hesitantly, staring at the ground rather than risk looking anywhere near Damon again. Bonnie grinned and handed her a few red bell peppers to cut up.

"I feel like I'm cooking for a battalion. Of course half of that battalion doesn't actually need to eat this food, they just like to indulge in it." Bonnie directed her accusation at Damon with a little smile, "Thanks, Elena."

Elena grabbed a cutting board, still trying not to look anywhere near where Damon was. He had settled on a stool by the kitchen table, however, and she could feel his eyes on her as she set the cutting board down as far on the opposite side of the table as she could get.

"Have these been washed?" She asked Bonnie.

"Yes." Damon replied for her. Without thinking, she glanced at him. His eyes were smoldering, capturing hers so she couldn't look away. "Chop chop, Gilbert." He smirked. Her breath quickened again and she immediately started cutting as an excuse to hide her red face beneath her hair. He was acting kind of normal. Maybe he wasn't as mad as he was last night.

"Damon called Professor Shane this morning." Bonnie said unenthusiastically.

"Oh really?" Elena swallowed. _Be normal or Bonnie will know. She knows everything about you._ Her hand wasn't very stable, though. The bell pepper kept wiggling while she cut.

"Yeah, he doesn't like me very much. I should probably stop threatening to kill him." Damon clicked his tongue and walked over to her side of the table. He took the knife from her hands, letting his hand brush hers as he did so. Their eyes locked and she swallowed hard at his sympathetic expression. She stood there, unable to move again, letting it wash over her. He had forgiven her. The relief was amazing. Their shoulders brushed as Damon began chopping. A shiver went down her spine at his touch.

Then, to avoid Bonnie's suspicion, she grabbed another knife and started chopping next to him with much steadier hands. "He's coming up here today so he can start the process when the mark is finished. Oh, and by the way, he's definitely evil."

"He is not." Bonnie replied mechanically like this was something she had repeated enough times that morning. Or perhaps that entire week.

Damon smirked at Elena as if he knew she would agree with him. She couldn't look away from his beautiful face. She was so happy that he was acting like nothing had happened. She smiled. His smirk faded a bit and he focused on chopping.

Maybe he was just pretending to be fine because he could see how weird she was acting. Guilt began to wiggle into her stomach again.

* * *

Matt sat next to her on the couch after breakfast. She was sipping from a blood bag and staring into the fire.

"So what happened last night?" He asked her.

Elena nearly choked.

"What?"

"I heard you run after him." Matt clarified, amused at her reaction. She went back to sipping her blood bag, relieved. Then he continued with a small smirk, "…among other things."

"Oh god." Elena squeaked, truly choking on the blood this time. He laughed at her embarrassment.

"You two have got to keep it down. I hope Jeremy didn't hear." Elena avoided his eyes by staring into the fire as fire lit up her own cheeks. So did she, more than anything in the world. Matt's chuckle died down and his tone took on a more serious note.

"But really, Elena, what are you doing to him? I actually feel bad for the guy. He's trying not to overstep his boundaries. You shouldn't do it for him. That's… tough. Speaking as a guy, that's… really tough. I'm pretty impressed that he left last night." Matt acting as big brother again. Of course, his advice was completely spot on. She really hated that he was right. On the other hand, he was impressed with Damon. Maybe Damon had won over his friendship too in the last week.

"I can't believe I'm talking to _you _about this, but ever since I became a vampire everything has been heightened. My emotions are really difficult to control. I didn't really mean to… overstep his boundaries last night." She admitted. Even though she and Matt were good friends, he was her ex-boyfriend. This day was nothing but embarrassment.

"Well it looks like he knows that. Just keep it in mind, ok?" Matt gave her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah." She agreed, wondering how she could possibly control how she felt towards him.

* * *

**Check back tomorrow for the next update! If you like the music from TVD, this is a song by the band that played the last song in 4x09 and in my opinion it makes the chapter a lot more awesome. Its what I listened to when I wrote it. watch?v=Jcw720SivGg. As always, don't forget to review so I know whats working and whats not :). Thank you to the reviewer who wants to pay me to finish the story... luckily you get it for free already XD. Super flattered, though.**


	8. Sire Bound

Damon surveyed the troops as they stood together outside. According to Jeremy, the mark was just past his shoulder. They had to find maybe two or three more vampires to complete it. He wasn't sure how to do that within the confines of Stefan and Elena's moral comfort zone since they had already raided the hospitals. Stefan had actually shown up and was wrestling Jeremy. Caroline had come up that morning as well. Tyler was still a no-show.

Elena looked like she was watching the wrestling match, but he could tell she was really just staring off into space, something she had done many times that morning. He wasn't quite sure how to handle her at the moment. He was trying sympathy, but he didn't think she understood the amount of effort it took to pull away from her when she attacked him like that. If she did, she wouldn't keep tempting him. He had to find some way to establish the right distance between them again. Still, lately she looked so miserable, with her brother trying to kill her and Stefan making her feel guilty all the time, not to mention transitioning into a vampire, he felt that he was one of the few remaining blocks of stability left in her life. Bonnie and Caroline were distracted with their own personal boyfriend dramas and weren't quite catching on to her pain. He couldn't contain himself when she pulled stunts like the one last night, but he was her rock and he couldn't stay mad at her when she needed him.

Damon walked down to join the group. His presence awakened Elena from her stupor, that same cute little blush on her face when their eyes caught. He nearly grew hard just looking at her, recalling how flushed she had been last night. This was the most bashful he had ever seen her.

"Alright, gang. Professor Shady called and he is on his way up. Klaus, surprisingly, has yet to show. I say we start formulating some ideas on where to get people who you all have deemed acceptable to kill for the remaining vampires."

"The hospitals are pretty dry." Stefan chimed in as he and Jeremy called a sweaty truce. "We might have better luck at the local insane asylum or maybe prison, though that one might be harder to tackle in a day."

"I for one don't feel comfortable killing crazy people. They didn't do anything wrong, they're just crazy." Caroline crossed her arms in front of her.

"Well, the woman I killed yesterday was severely schizophrenic. Meds stopped working on her so she was living in constant panic and had to be sedated every moment of the day, strapped down to a bed 24/7. When I told her why I was there she begged me to end it." Stefan said solemnly. "I saw a couple more people there in a similar condition. I didn't feel good about it, but it's better than ripping fully functioning people from their families."

"That's really sad." Matt looked shocked.

"I'm going to stop feeling sorry for myself for being turned into a vampire now." Caroline muttered.

"Ok." Damon clapped his hands together, "everyone feeling better about the loony bin plan?"

Depressed looks all around.

"Good. Why don't some of us get started, then, before Klaus has a chance to compel anyone to come back and get tortured."

"Um, we may have a problem." Caroline held up her hand, "Maybe. My mom mentioned that there was a statewide alert to tighten security on hospitals due to a string of abductions this week. I don't know about the asylums, but those are a kind of hospital, right?"

"Good to know. Thanks Caroline." Stefan smiled at her. _Was that a look?_ Damon decided he must have been imagining things.

"Good, you're all fed and watered and making little plans." Klaus appeared from around the cabin. Damon was getting a no-nonsense vibe from the way he walked toward them.

"Here's the situation; my brother has enlisted my sister to help him stop us from finding the cure. I don't know why he so desperately wants to foil my plans, but he does." Klaus was not pleased. "Luckily, they don't know that you are the moral police and picking your victims from lives of sin rather than at random, so I don't suspect they know where to look for you. Unluckily, they got April Young to divulge the whereabouts of this cabin, something about you babysitting her here when she was younger, Elena, so they'll be arriving in a few seconds." His mouth set in a line as he narrowed his eyes at them.

"If I were you, I would run. Now." His voice was low and terrifying. Stefan went for Jeremy as Damon grabbed Elena's hand and vamped off into the woods. He saw Caroline go for Matt and Bonnie before they took off at top speed. Elena tugged him to a stop quickly, about fifty meters into the forest, her eyes wild with fear.

"Jeremy, Bonnie-"

"Barbie and Stefan got them. Lets go!" Damon pulled her back into high speed. He let them come to a stop next to the highway a few miles away, hidden in the trees. Elena fell into him as they stopped, clutching his chest for support. Her wonderful scent washed over him as she looked up at him, embarrassed at her newbie vampire clumsiness. Damon took a deep breath and disentangled them from each other. They took a moment to compose themselves.

"Well, since those two have humans to babysit, we should probably try for the asylum ourselves." Damon could feel the tension between them and suddenly wished he had gone for Jeremy instead and let Stefan grab her. Their dynamic was too complicated to deal with right now.

"Lets text them to make sure they're alright before we do anything else. I saw Stefan had his phone on him. I left mine at the cabin."

"Oh, great. Well, he'll probably respond to me given the circumstances." Damon searched for his phone in his jacket pocket. "Probably." He muttered again to himself under his breath.

Elena tucked her hair behind her ear and crossed her arms in front of herself while they waited tersely for a response. Damon felt he should say something to ease the tension not caused by the life-and-death situation at hand.

"It's ok, you know. I get it." Not realizing it was a bad idea until he had already done it, he reached out to touch her long chestnut hair. "I get why you did what you did." He clarified at her sweet and slightly confused expression. Heat rose to her face again. Why was that so adorable?

"You do? Why did I do what I did?" She laughed bitterly under her breath, unable to meet his eyes.

"Obviously I'm impossible to resist." Damon shrugged, smirking. Elena's face lit up with surprise before it melted into an exasperated grin and she shoved him away playfully. Good, she was smiling now.

"It takes you by surprise for a little while. The emotions that used to come in waves are tsunamis now." Damon said. "It will be a while before you can control it."

"Caroline didn't have this problem." Elena said gloomily, rubbing the toe of her shoe in the ground.

"She probably did have some trouble with it, you just didn't see it. Besides, Caroline isn't like us." Elena looked up at him, his words registering with her. He hadn't meant them so intimately. A spark ignited between them and the air was made of electricity again.

His phone buzzed.

"Got Jeremy, meeting Caroline and Klaus to protect him. Bonnie and Matt safe. Get 2 vampires." Damon read aloud. He kept the _don't touch Elena_ tacked on at the end to himself.

* * *

Elena licked her lips. She was feeling it again, that overwhelming urge to throw him up against a tree and kiss him until she couldn't see straight.

_Control. Yeah, right._

"Damon, I can't manage these feelings." She confessed faintly. His mouth fell open a little, his eyes searching hers. She took a step closer, her heart beating too quickly. She was sure he could hear it. He was rooted in place.

"I don't want to." She stood only inches from him. She hesitantly placed her hands on his chest and, when he didn't stop her, she sensually followed the lines of his chest up to his neck. "I won't." She breathed, barely making a sound. Damon closed his eyes briefly in pleasure at her touch. When his eyes opened again, her face was close to his, searching it for the slightest bit of hesitation, the smallest weakness in his armor. He closed his eyes once more. She smiled gently and leaned in.

His hands copied hers, lightly caressing the sides of her face. He lifted his mouth from her mouth's descent and she felt his lips brush against her forehead. He smiled at her, laughing a little.

"Where did you learn to be such a seductress, my very young Elena?" He rested his forehead against hers. She let the breath she had been holding go.

"Why won't you just let me kiss you?" She was more than disappointed. Then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her the remaining inches into an embrace and she got over it.

"Because I am going to help you control those very flattering feelings that are oh so wildly out of control." Damon's purr of satisfaction was like velvet in her ears. He rubbed her back in leisurely circles and her knees went weak. Luckily, he was right there for her to lean on.

"No…." Elena groaned weakly, wondering if she should complain about anything right then. Finally, she was in his arms. Everything wrong was suddenly right. "I don't want to control them." She buried her face in his shoulder.

"You'll do it." Damon chuckled. He stroked her sides, inciting shivers where his fingers went. "For me." He murmured, his glittering eyes gazing into hers and dazing her a little bit. It had been so long since he flirted with her like this. "But in the meantime, my difficult girl deserves something for all her efforts." Then, just as the snow started to drift down around them, he startled her with a kiss.

It was unlike any kiss that he had ever given her, sweet, gentle and softer than a butterfly's wings on her trembling lips. She had felt something like it when he kissed her on her doorstep, an unobtrusive kiss he was unsure she would return. He held her tightly to his body as he kissed her over and over until she felt light-headed with happiness. She knew he loved her then, and that he would do anything to soothe her pain, including blatantly contradicting himself.

* * *

Eventually Elena leaned back in his arms, a smile permanently plastered on her face.

"If you promise this won't be the last time you do that…"

"Yes?" Damon waited for the rest of the sentence.

"Promise first." Elena was stubborn.

"Alright, I promise." He rolled his eyes, but he was grinning like her.

"Ok. Then I think we should get going on finding these vampires. I don't like the idea of our friends under Klaus's protection."

"With Rebekah and Kol on the loose, that's probably the safest place for them right now, as unnatural as that is to say." Damon pulled away and turned his back on her to check his phone. She felt a piece of her heart fall off at the loss of his touch. She went to slip her hands into his, but her hand wouldn't move. She tried again. The hand would not move. She tried walking a few paces to stand by his side. Her feet moved just fine. She stared hard at his hand and tried again. Why-

Nausea hit her.

"Damon you didn't!"

_I'm going to help you control those very flattering feelings that are oh so wildly out of control…. You'll do it. For me._

He turned to face her, flicking his eyes down her rigid body to return to her furious glare. His smirk was filthy.

That heavenly kiss was a consolation prize.

"Just what were you trying to do?"

"You promised you wouldn't! You promised me!" She was panicking. She couldn't even touch him now? Her life had just gone from fireworks to dung in a few seconds.

"That was before you started to play…dirty." He shrugged, rolling 'dirty' over his tongue suggestively. "Now I can be around you, and you can control yourself. This fixes both of our problems. Aren't you happy?" He was amused. He didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for breaking his promise.

* * *

**Ok, I caved and updated early even though barely anyone reviewed so I'm pretty sure you guys don't care what happens next XD. ****I'm feeling a little bit sadistic in my treatment of Elena. Even though Damon forgave her for jerking him around for so long, I'm starting to suspect that I didn't. Writing is such a process of self-discovery. Well the next chapter is not going to be so pleasant for her, but its going to be even more unpleasant for Damon. This plan could definitely backfire, if you know what I mean, and Elena is definitely pissed and pulling out all of the stops to get back at him ;). This time I'm updating tomorrow! I am I am I'm not going to cave I am... we'll see, maybe tonight.**


	9. Torture

Elena Gilbert was pouting. She was actually pouting. Damon could barely believe his eyes, but she was right there before him, arms and legs crossed, sulking in a corner as he compelled the nurse at the visitor's desk to bring them some hospital uniforms. He returned to her side and he couldn't help a grin at her furious look. How had she been foolish enough to think he wouldn't invoke the sire bond if she didn't keep her hands to herself?

"Oh come on, its better this way. Chin up."

"You tricked me! You distracted me so I wouldn't know what you were doing!" She exclaimed.

Damon shook his head, laughing. Finally, he could breathe easy. He didn't notice her open-mouthed glare of indignation at his laughter until it solidified into grim resolve.

"What? What, Elena?" Elena smiled bitterly with no response. _Uh oh._

The nurse returned and handed them a bag, directing them to the bathroom in the lobby where they could change. Elena went first, snatching the bag from his hands in a huff. When she returned in scrubs she exchanged the bag with him more subtly and he got changed as well.

They followed an orderly in through keycard doors and began their search. Damon swiped a clipboard from the nurse's station.

"What's more tragic, crippling dementia or… there's a considerable number of people here being treated for erectile dysfunction disorder. That's a mental disease? Huh. Should we put them out of their misery?"

Elena didn't even roll her eyes she was so angry. Her death stare prompted him to concede,

"Dementia it is. Oh, and here's another schizophrenic. We should see how bad her condition is."

"Ugh I hate this." She muttered.

"Yeah, its sad." Damon said without any real feeling.

"No, being stuck with you!" She raged. Damon grinned again. She was so cute when she was hopping mad at him.

"No more fuzzy feelings of wanton lust towards me then?" Teasing her was just too fun. Especially now that there was nothing she could really do to him.

Elena eyed him and suddenly he wished he hadn't said that. That evil look was back. They arrived at the room of the dementia patient.

A hunched over, white haired woman was sitting in a chair, staring out of the window, her eyes blank and glassy. Damon and Elena closed the door behind them, quietly so as not to disturb her.

"Hello." Damon said hesitantly. The little old woman barely turned her head.

Damon picked up a chart from her bedside. He scanned over the medical jibber jabber until he reached a recent note from her psychiatrist under a prescription- _Husband passed away last week, grieving but confused as to why._ A white board over her bed had important information written on it; the nurse on duty's name, her own name, her two kid's names and cell numbers. Scribbled under that was the words '_average memory span: 3 minutes'. _An old photo of her and her husband was on her bedside table.

"Elena, I think this is our girl." Damon whispered. Elena's eyes had softened to sorrow as she gazed at the old woman staring out the window. She scanned the clipboard and noticed the psychiatrist's note.

"It's more merciful than letting her live. This is what we came here for." Damon said, his voice low and soothing. He took a step towards the woman, but Elena held out her hand to stop him. Damon was about to argue with her when she started towards the old woman herself.

"I'm so sorry." She kneeled before her, taking her hands in her own, tears starting to bud. The old woman's expression remained blank. A deep suffering permeated her slightest movements and it was thick and old in this room. Elena bit her palm and gently offered it to the woman. The woman's eyes barely registered confusion when she pressed it to her mouth.

"It's magic. It will heal you. Drink." Elena smiled through tears. The old woman hesitantly sipped from her palm.

"Elena, our blood doesn't heal illnesses caused by age." Damon was entranced by her compassion, the first aspect of her personality that had drawn him to her.

"I know." She sniffed. She swiftly snapped the woman's neck. Elena's tears really started to flow then as she backed away from the body. Damon put a hand on her shoulder, bewildered. He hadn't expected that from her. From the look on her face, she hadn't either.

He held her until her sobs subsided, planning how they could get the body out through those keycard doors. The only feasible way was to wheel her out on a gurney. Or perhaps break the windows and avoid the door altogether.

"Look, you stay here with her, I'll find another and come up with a plan to get these people out of here. Are you going to be ok here?" He wasn't sure about leaving her with the body, but he certainly wasn't going to ask her to get involved with any more murder today.

She nodded, wiping tears away.

"Ok. I'll be back before you know it."

* * *

Elena didn't know what to do with her self. She had just killed someone, again! It was getting easier, which scared the hell out of her. She hadn't even thought about it, she was just so sad for her and she wanted to end her pain any way she possibly could. Her hands reached out and did it for her.

She paced the room, hugging her arms to her. Soon she began to calm down. The woman's face in death was very peaceful, easing her guilt.

Elena tried working on the windows. She figured that was probably easier than trying to wheel the bodies out on gurneys. With what Caroline had said, they would likely end up going through some sort of heightened security check that they weren't prepared to deal with. The windows weren't built to open. Wrapping a sheet around her hands, she punched through the glass. The sound was louder than she expected, and a large shard of glass managed to shred through the sheet and impale her hand.

"Could you be louder? I almost didn't hear that from down the hall" Damon hissed, shutting the door quietly behind him. He took in the situation and hurried to her side to pull the glass out and inspect her hand.

"Aaah… I'm fine. I'm fine. Did you find someone else?" Damon gestured to the body of a fifty-something woman slumping against the door.

"We better go quick in case someone heard that." Damon sped over and picked up the body of the woman he brought in with him. Elena swallowed the butterflies in her stomach and lifted the woman she had killed up on her shoulder as well. They carefully climbed out the window around the shards of glass still jutting towards them and dropped the couple of feet to the ground. From there, holding hands they vamped off together until they reached the cover of woods where they stopped and took a moment to get their bearings.

"I'll text Stefan." Damon offered.

"Make sure you ask how they're all doing." Elena sat down next to a tree trunk. When he finished he sat down on a log across from her.

In the silence, her earlier rage returned to her. He had used her feelings for him against her, kissing her and holding her so she wouldn't realize that he was actually ordering her not to do so. Typical Damon manipulation. Worst of all, she had thought that kiss meant something special. Well, she couldn't touch him… but she was definitely in a position to tease him. She would beat him at his own manipulative games. She stood up and started to pull the scrubs top up over her head.

"What are you doing?" Damon's eyebrows pulled together in concern.

"I'm changing." She said, nonchalant. She finished yanking the top over her head. Damon was more than a little slack jawed at her bold move. She turned, letting him stare at her for a moment. When her eyes leveled on his, he broke his stare with a twist of irritation and looked pointedly in the opposite direction.

"Would you hand me that bag?"

Damon did not reply, his head fixed in the opposite direction.

"Fine."

She shimmied out of the scrubs bottoms next and then walked around in front of him. She moved in between his legs so she was straddling one leg, leaving his face level with her underwear and belly. Damon gaped up at her, completely taken aback. At this point, he stopped breathing altogether. She bent over him, dragging out her movements so they were as slow as possible, and grabbed the bag of clothes leaning against the log behind him. He was forced to look in the other direction when her breasts came dangerously close to his face, but he could not lean away to escape her. She could hear his heart racing.

Then she stepped back and, claiming his irate but helpless eyes with hers, pulled on her pants and shirt, flipping her long hair up to release it from the shirt.

"Done." She announced. He was really hot when he was turned on, lips barely parted, eyes heavily lidded, and best of all, arrogance completely wiped away. "Your turn." She held the bag out to him expectantly, one hand on her hip.

Damon stood up and stepped up to her so they were nose to nose. A tormented snarl formed on his lips as he snatched the bag from her grasp and stalked off into the forest. No, she wasn't going to let him make her feel guilty this time. He totally deserved it. She didn't feel bad.

* * *

Damon came back in a foul mood.

"You just keep finding ways to torture me." He muttered as he checked his phone for the fourth time.

"You broke your promise. You abused the sire bond." She didn't feel guilty. She didn't. She didn't feel like Katherine, teasing him on purpose like that. Nope.

"Yeah, because you're a newbie vampire with very little self control and the high school adage 'no means no' isn't working very effectively."

"It's insulting that you don't trust me when I say I know what I feel. That's what Stefan keeps telling me and I don't like it."

"I'm trying to be careful for once." Damon burst out, "For you. We don't know the extent to which this sire bond affects you. If you recall, you weren't exactly stripping for me before you became a vampire. Excuse me for being suspicious." Damon glowered at her, the truth behind this insecurity rearing its head. Elena sat up.

"Is this because I chose Stefan? You don't believe me now when I tell you that I want you? Is that why you're buying into this sire bond b.s.?" Elena's anger was fast seeping away, replaced with concern and compassion for the damage she caused.

"Oh, I believe you want me. At this point, you've done a pretty good job of convincing me of that." The anger there was unmistakable. Elena realized suddenly that in her efforts to convince him of how she felt she had made her focus too physical and not enough about what was going on underneath. "You made a clear decision when you were human, and suddenly as a vampire that's sired to me you've done a complete 180. How much of that is vampirism, how much is sire bond? How much of it is actually you? Now we're working around the clock to turn you human again, and I don't know what to expect when you are." He sat down on the log, losing steam as she had. "I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to hurt my brother. You chose him before all this started."

"You just don't want to get hurt yourself. You're afraid I'll go back to him when I'm human."

"It's a valid concern. Don't say it like that."

"It's not! Damon, listen to me!" She spilled onto her knees before him. She tried to cup his face in her hands, but they only jerked unsuccessfully towards him. She balled them into fists, looking him directly in the eye and putting as much emotion into her words as she could to compensate. "My feelings aren't going to change! I fell for you when I was human, I just didn't realize it until now. I know this is real, no matter what form I take, its always constant in my heart. Damon, I lov-"

"Don't!" Damon insisted, reeling. She couldn't bear the pain in his face. "Don't you say that to me. Torture me any other way, but don't say it."

Elena fell into an anguished silence.

"How can I prove it to you?" She whispered. "I didn't mean to torture you. I've never meant for that."

Damon sighed, but he seemed touched by her earnestness.

"You can't. You just have to be patient and respect what I want. I'm sorry, but that's all we can do for now."

If she could, she would have reached out to him, kissed away the pain. But he didn't want her to, so even though she couldn't anyway, she didn't. She decided she didn't want to do that. She hadn't realized how much she had hurt him.

Damon's phone buzzed. He raked his hands through his hair tersely and then pulled it out of his pocket.

"They want us to meet them at the Lockwood caves. Oh great, Rebekah and Kol have Shane, and guess who gets to rescue him?"

* * *

**Thanks to CosmicButton for adding me to a community! Also, thanks for all the reviews lately. My constant nagging is taking effect. Careful, or I'll start thinking thats the way to influence you readers ;D. NO I'M KIDDING DON'T STOP REVIEWING I LOVE YOU I WON'T NAG. Ahem. Surprised, along with Damon, to learn that some forms of Erectile Dysfunction are considered mental disorders. Fun fact of the day, I suppose. Well technically its morning, but its kind of night, so I'm halfway caving. Hopefully update tomorrow, depending upon the strength of my fairly weak will to keep a strict schedule. **


	10. Silas

Klaus was seething, Stefan was brooding and Caroline was nervously twitching her foot up and down when they arrived. Bonnie was holding Jeremy's hand and murmuring encouragement. He was definitely struggling with his instinct to eviscerate every vampire in there. Matt was sitting quietly next to them, holding bloody gauze in his hands, a bit dazed.

Klaus's eyebrows shot up when he saw their choice of victims, but he was too distracted by whatever had planted that black glower on his face to comment.

"How soon until they wake up?"

"An hour, give or take." Damon said, subtly positioning himself in front of Elena. He didn't like those two even in the same room together.

"Gives us time to rescue your friend from my maniac brother. It seems they've met before."

"Kol knows the Professor?"

"Apparently."

"If Kol knows him, he's got to be evil. Told you." Damon shot over Klaus's shoulder.

"He's not!" Bonnie insisted.

"Oh yes he is. Seems he tried to use some expression voodoo on him a few hundred years ago. Almost succeeded in murdering him, white oak stake be damned." Klaus agreed with Damon. Bonnie looked crushed.

"What? Expression is good. Hundreds of years ago? It must have been a different person, he's not a vampire. He's not even a witch."

"Oh no, sweetheart, its very not. But you're right on one account. He's neither of those things." Klaus rounded on her and she pulled back from his intense stare. "He's something much worse."

"Much worse than vampires? No, we can barely deal with you Originals hanging around, and now you're telling us he's WORSE?" Caroline was seriously loosing her calm.

"Much worse. He's what my mother used to tell me stories about when I was young to frighten me. He's the most evil and powerful witch that ever lived- Silas."

"Silas is buried, though." Bonnie corrected him.

"Is he though? Think about where we heard that story from." Damon shrugged.

"Who is Silas and why don't I know what's going on?" Stefan frowned.

"Silas was the most powerful of all witches. He practiced expression, the channeling of human sacrifices, and terrorized both the human and the supernatural world, slaughtering thousands in his very short reign of power. When the other witches learned he was seeking immortality, they could not allow such a terror to exist forever. They channeled their energy into a witch called Qetsiyah, his right hand, who turned on him in the middle of the immortality spell and locked him and his power away. The spell was very finicky, however, and Silas was split into two immortal halves- a powerless man, free to wander the Earth, and a very powerful witch, doomed to an eternity locked in a magical tomb."

"Shane told us Silas is buried with the cure." Elena said, putting the pieces together.

"What?!" Klaus turned on the congregation behind him, "Why did no one think to mention this to me before now?"

"None of this makes any sense. If Shane is so evil why was he trying to help me?" Bonnie stood up, a bundle of disgruntled nerves.

"Because he needs a Bennett witch to unseal the tomb. I'm going to take a wild stab and suggest that Bennetts are descendant from, gee, which witch would make sense…" Damon tapped his chin in fake contemplation.

"Oh god." Bonnie sank back down next to Jeremy, horrified.

"Well. This is turning into quite a problem, isn't it?" Klaus looked like he wanted to smash things for a couple days. "We'll just have to figure out a way to extract the cure without waking Silas."

"Hang on. Shane said that Silas became immortal to be with a woman forever. Then, when Qetsiyah killed her, he made the cure for himself so he wouldn't have to live without her forever."

"That sounds exactly like the villain's version of the story. Believe me, I know a little something about such things. Remember my masterpiece, the Sun and the Moon curse?" Klaus was pacing impatiently.

"Well, it looks like we have some research to do." Stefan broke the very tense atmosphere.

"So who has rescue incredibly creepy Shane duty?" Damon asked.

"Klaus is the only one who stands a chance against Rebekah and Kol. Where's Elijah in all this?" Matt pointed out.

"Still daggered. He wouldn't help anyway, he doesn't care about my ability to make hybrids."  
"He might do it to help Elena. She saved him before." Stefan perked up. His eyes met with hers and Damon felt a stab of jealousy at the long-standing connection there.

"I don't think he would risk raising Silas. He heard the same bedtime stories when he was little as I did. Probably the same reason my siblings are making this so difficult." Klaus shook his head.

"Well we might want to at least make sure Barbie and Psycho can't wake and recruit him." Damon pointed out.

"Psycho? Is that Kol? Cute. Fitting." Klaus actually laughed. "There's no way they could find where I've hidden him. Well, it seems the second least worthless of this group is Damon. You're the oldest. Plus, aren't you chalk full of vervain and fed on a healthy diet of townsfolk?"

"I've been drinking human blood too. I can come." Stefan stood up.

"Not exclusively." Elena looked worried. He smiled reassuringly at her. Damon felt the strangest mixture of relief that they were starting to get along again and a jealous need to punch him for looking at her like that.

"She has a huge crush on Matt. Maybe we can use that to our advantage." Caroline suggested.

Matt was very nervous at that idea.

"That sounds like a good way to get him dead." Elena growled.

"He'll be with us, we won't put him in danger." Caroline looked nervous too, but she tried to sound confident. "I've been drinking vervain too, ever since I became the go-to girl for distracting this evil bastard. " She said, unabashedly.

"Careful, love." Klaus snorted, a growl on his lips.

"I can come too."

"No." The brothers said in unison.

"Why not?" Elena was outraged.

"You haven't started drinking vervain, you're too new at this so you're clumsy, you suck at killing things… Do I have to continue?"

"Damon's right." Stefan said grudgingly.

"Stefan, you were training me. I can handle myself. You know it. Damon, I've gotten the upper hand on you before."

"You can still be compelled. You're not coming." Stefan shook his head.

Elena's jaw worked in frustration.

"Fine. What do you two overprotective bodyguards suggest I do?"

"Stick with me, Elena." Bonnie said. "We'll focus on figuring out how to extract the cure without releasing Silas. I could always use another super strong bodyguard, considering how often I get kidnapped."

"Jeremy, you're with them too." Damon added.

"Is this some sort of Gilbert embargo? I can handle myself just fine in a fight. Why were you training me all this time if not for something just like this." Jeremy whined.

"As your personal trainer, I can vouch for strong, fast and ruthless, but still not as strong, fast and ruthless as an Original." Damon warned.

"I've slaughtered your kind before, pretty easily. Steer clear of Rebekah and Psycho." Klaus complimented his nickname by reusing it.

The Gilberts did not look pleased at their assignments.

* * *

Damon was busying himself trying to figure out how to attach one of the wrist-staking devices Alaric used to use when Elena approached him.

"Hey. Be careful, ok?" She looked like she wanted to say something different.

"Spill. What is it? You're always worrying about something." He hated devices like this. Usually, getting his hands and teeth dirty was the fun part. This time he was up against Rebekah, however, and that tactic didn't seem to work out well for him. He wanted a surprise up his sleeve, literally and metaphorically.

"Just… this is really dangerous. I mean, they're _expecting_ us to try to rescue him, that's why they kidnapped him. We're walking into a trap. Something could go really wrong and I don't want… anyone else at risk."

"We're always at risk. In case you forgot, you live in Mystic Falls. It comes with the territory."

"Yes, but… Especially now, after we fought… I just…" She was tripping on her own tongue. Was the sire bond getting in the way? It hadn't stopped her confession earlier, though he wished strongly that it had. He should have been more specific in his original command. Was she trying for the L word again? He had distinctly ordered her not to say that. Again, he hadn't been specific though… she could be restrained by her interpretation. Perhaps she couldn't say anything relating to how she felt about him now.

"Are you trying to say something smutty, Elena?" Damon whispered, a slow grin spreading across his face. He probably should have learned his lesson, but what the hell. The strip teases he could handle much better than the surprise make-out onslaughts.

Elena blushed furiously, indignation ripening.

"I was just trying to say something nice, but apparently I can't even do that anymore."

She turned to leave.

"You can say it." Damon stopped her feet, suddenly wanting to hear it very much. The look between her and Stefan from earlier flashed through his head, and he ached at the thought that that might be his life again when this was all over. Watching them watch each other. Right now, that sweet blush was just for him, and these moments, cursed as they were, were very likely numbered. As hard as it was to resist her, and as guilty as it made him feel around his brother, he definitely didn't hate her for stubbornly continuing against his wishes to express her affection for him. In fact, he had almost never been happier. He could only remember one night and day in his life that had outshone these recent moments with her.

"I care about you, Damon. Don't be reckless."

He smiled, her words affecting him more strongly than her strip tease had.

"Well, if it counts for anything, you officially have my permission to say sweet things to me from here on out." He gazed into her bambi eyes, his heart jumping for joy and aching with sadness that she was looking back at him with gentle adoration.

* * *

**Reviewing Game: Readers, I'm calling upon your infinite intelligence and knowledge. Julie was saying in an interview how Damon is mostly dark but he has light in him, whereas Stefan is light with dark in him (like Yin and Yang). I came up with half of an awesome analogy and cannot for the life of me come up with the other half.**

"**Damon is to an oreo as Stefan is to a _"**

**Ok…. its very possible that I did not get enough sleep last night. Humor me****.**

**This chapter is mostly about moving the plot forward, not a ton of Delena moments. Sorry, I was sad about it too ****. I promise more Delena moments in the next chapter! But I have stuff to do tomorrow, so the update could be as far off as *****GASP***** a couple of days. Reviews make me happy, and for every Stefan simile suggestion I get the more motivated I will be to write…. :D I'm not nagging this time, I'm bribing. **


	11. Dark Promises

Elena personally oversaw the death of the women they had brought back, soothing them into complacency before Jeremy stabbed them in the back. She hoped that they hadn't been afraid or felt pain.

Bonnie, upon losing both of her magic mentors, was pretty glum. She sounded pretty bummed as she suggested that they try to break into Professor Shane's office and apartment, looking for more information on how to open the tomb. Elena took one last look at Damon as the others gathered together, formulating last minute details on the plan. She wished she could kiss him goodbye.

While they drove, she remembered how cute Bonnie and Jeremy were as a couple. He made her laugh, and she looked at him with such heartwarming sweetness that it made Elena incredibly jealous that they could be together so openly and unabashedly.

"You two are so cute. I'm glad you patched things up." Elena smiled.

"Elena, stop." Jeremy frowned, but he seemed pleased.

"I'm trying to compliment you."

"Oh no, did I sign up to deal with sibling bickering?" Bonnie grinned. "It means a lot that you're ok with us, Elena." Bonnie said, exchanging a look with Jeremy.

Elena kicked up the speed a little bit, wanting more than ever to be human again so she could finally convince that stubborn man that she was truly his.

* * *

"This is where you come in." Bonnie nodded at the locked door of Shane's office. Elena easily twisted it until the lock broke. Jeremy looked impressed at his sister's strength, and only a little murderous. Bonnie grabbed his hand, taking notice, and the glint in his eyes faded.

They wandered into the dark classroom. Bonnie seemed to know exactly where to go. She started searching through one of the many bookshelves. Jeremy joined in hesitantly. Elena was overwhelmed taking in the number of books on his many bookshelves. Then something occurred to her.

"He's been trying to reunite himself with his other half for over a thousand years now. I doubt he kept that information on it with all his other books. It would have to be somewhere special."

Bonnie and Jeremy slowed their frantic upturning of books and looked at her, realizing she was right.

"Where do you think it is?"

"I don't know, but we should try to think outside of the box. I bet it's in a secret room or something, like my parents had up in the cabin."

None of them had any idea how to look for a secret room. Jeremy suggested tapping on walls and floors.

"There's nothing here. Every inch of this place is solid." Bonnie looked deflated.

"Lets try his apartment. If I was going to keep a dark secret, I would hide it in my house so I could get to it whenever I needed and make sure it was secure." Elena said, thinking of her diary. She was trying not to get discouraged.

"I've only been there once. I hope I can remember how to get there."

* * *

Elena was turning out to be quite the forceful locksmith. She easily cracked the professor's apartment door as well.

The apartment was pretty normal, for belonging to an exiled thousand-year-old witch. The occasional weird Occult memorabilia decorated the walls and shelves.

It was actually not long before they discovered the clichéd moving desk ornament that opened a secret door behind his home desk.

Of course it was spelled.

But Bonnie had learned a few things from dear Professor Shane, and soon they were walking around a very creepy, tiny room. A rock on a pedestal was spotlighted in the middle of it.

Elena's phone went off, startling her.

"Hey. How goes the search for the key to your humanity?"

"Damon! Thank god. Did you guys get Professor Shane out?"

"Yup. Klaus, trusting comrade that he is, forgot to tell us that he retrieved the daggers he used on those two and had them stashed in his back pocket the whole time. Just love working with the guy."

"What, so they're out of the picture again?"

"For now. No more Originals mucking up our schemes, except for the most meddlesome of them all. Stefan and Klaus are, well, questioning him right now. Right now we're trying not to let him know that we know who he is. Might give us the upper hand in all this."

"They can't kill him. We might need him to unearth the cure."

"I don't think killing him is the plan, but I'll let them know. You never really know with Klaus."

Elena was staring at the dramatically lit rock while Bonnie examined it. She had seen it before, when he showed it to her at the lake house. She probably should have questioned why he was hauling around a rock with him.

"The other rock is still on exhibit, I saw it the other night. He must have stolen this one and replaced it with a fake."

"What does it do?"

"It's a spell, the spell that Qetsiyah used to seal Silas away. It's pretty complicated. I'll have to take it back and examine it. If I can figure out how they sealed him in, maybe I can reverse it. I just keep wishing, you know, that I could ask Shane about it. But now that he's evil…"

"Well he doesn't know that we're onto him. So I don't think we can take this rock without alerting him to our plans to thwart his plan."

"So let's act like we live in the digital age and take a picture." Jeremy rolled his eyes at their slow thinking.

"The markings are so faint though…." Bonnie squinted at the rock. Jeremy left the small room and came back with a pencil and some paper.

"Lets take an imprint too. You just rub the pencil over the paper on the rock."

"My artist, so smart." Bonnie smiled. Jeremy grinned, bashful.

"Um, there's a file with all of this stuff that looks important right here. Let's get to photocopying." Elena was busy rifling through the few paperwork, old books, and darker black-magic like objects. _Mummy fingers. Gross._

* * *

Elena returned home that night. She had school in the morning and Bonnie had missed enough school, so she was going back home too. She dropped her off and returned with Jeremy to her house. Stefan and Damon were there to pick him up and drive him back to the lake house for the night. Elena relaxed tension she hadn't realized she was keeping in her at the sight of them. Jeremy waved to them then jogged inside to pack some new clothes and such for the week.

"Hey, what are both of you doing here?"

"Well, even with Rebekah and Kol daggered in a box, I thought you might want two bodyguards watching Jeremy if he was sleeping away from you." Stefan answered.

Elena looked between the two of them. Stefan was standing a good distance from Damon, arms crossed. Damon had his hands in his pockets, trying to look relaxed, but she could tell better.

"Both of you… are you going to be able to get along together up there?"

"Well, Matt volunteered to stay at night to try to keep an eye on Jeremy. He's been driving back for work and school and such. Hopefully his presence will be enought to keep him from staking us in our sleep. He's probably not as effective as Bonnie, but hopefully we'll all still be alive tomorrow." Damon joked. "Maybe he'll keep Stefan from staking me in my sleep too." He muttered under his breath.

"Don't count on it." Stefan growled. Elena's eyes widened until she realized he was half kidding. Half kidding was not good enough.

"Stefan. Don't." She warned, narrowing her eyes at him. He met hers in a challenge. She wasn't going to let him win, though, and soon enough she saw the pain leak out under the anger and he let his eyes drop to the ground.

"I'm going back to the boardinghouse to get a few things. I'll just meet you up there, Damon." Stefan, voluntarily leaving them together? Elena looked at Damon, but he seemed almost as surprised as her.

"Um, ok." Damon gaped as Stefan vamped off.

They were suddenly very along together. Elena walked up to him to hug him but then she realized she couldn't touch him so she ended up just standing there a bit awkwardly.

"And how was your day?" Damon had seen her awkward movements and sympathy sparked in his face at the realization of what she was trying to do again.

"Probably better than yours. No fights, we just broke into places. Bonnie's looking over that old rock that he showed us up in the lake house."

"Yeah, the fight lasted about two minutes. Klaus disappeared the moment we got there, so we went in to face off without him. They had barely started to fight us when Klaus magically reappeared and daggered them both in the back. He used us as a distraction. I've got to say, for two Original vampires, they didn't make for a very impressive fighting duo. They were kicking our asses for those two minutes, but neither one of them stopped to think, 'hmm, where could Klaus be?'"

"You guys went to fight them without Klaus?" Elena stared at him, horrified. Her hands balled into fists again as she thought about hugging him in relief that he was still alive. "I thought I told you not to be reckless." She whispered faintly. She willed her body to relax, but it took her a moment.

Elena was about to yell at him, but she couldn't muster the steam. She was suddenly incredibly, incredibly tired. Tired of fighting him, tired of fighting her own body. She slumped against the side of the car, putting one hand to her head.

"Hey, don't do that. Cheer up. Everyone's fine. Happy ending." Damon took a step closer to her, concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is you don't listen to me. Ever. Here I am, forced to listen to your every word, and you're free to ignore me and charge off into situations that could get you killed." Elena was exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally. She felt truly dead. She needed something stable, something to ground her in the middle of all of this turmoil. She needed him, her closest friend and supporter, and he had bound her physically and wouldn't listen to a word that came out of her mouth.

Damon stood there awkwardly, trying to figure out her erratic behavior. Elena needed to get away from him and his 'safe distances' just then.

"You can wait for Jeremy inside. I'm going to go to bed." Elena started walking towards the house.

"Elena!" Damon raised his voice, but she kept walking. He didn't follow her. She shrugged off her coat inside and stumbled up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Goodnight, Jer. Damon is downstairs when you're ready." She mumbled as she passed him.

"'Night Elena."

* * *

Damon stood there, watching Elena's slumped and retreating back, trying to decipher what had just happened. He had never seen her so depressed, too depressed to even yell at him. All the energy had just seeped out of her right before his eyes.

Vampire emotions were really not sitting well with her. Damon turned to leave, thinking that the safest course of action. He shouldn't do it. He really shouldn't try to comfort her, not when she was in her bedroom. That was very dangerous territory for them. Her empty eyes haunted him, though.

_She's bound by the sire bond, she can't do anything. Don't be a dick just because you're afraid to lose control._

He vamped up to her room, avoiding the younger Gilbert's suspicions. She was rifling through a drawer looking for pajamas. She didn't even look up when he stopped by her.

"What?" She asked, quiet. Her movements were so heavy, so lifeless. He recognized that deep hopelessness. He had felt it on more than one occasion. In the beginning he used to slow down to an almost catatonic state, unable to feed or move for days as he thought about the loneliness of an eternity without Katherine. But time had turned him bitter and he learned to channel it into the hunt, the kill. He hadn't had anyone to save him from it, but he was here now and he wouldn't let Elena be buried in it. The loneliness had made a monster out of him. Until her.

"What can I do?" He asked, gentle.

She slowly shut the door and started to undress. This time there was nothing sexual about it. She just didn't care anymore.

"Just leave, Damon. You've made it clear that there's nothing more you're willing to do for me right now." She turned away from him and unbuckled her bra, slipping her tanktop on over her head. Damon felt helpless.

"If there's anything I can do to make you happy, I'll do it."

"No you won't." Elena pulled her shorts on, flipped the light switch, and climbed slowly into bed. "Just go."

"Try me."

Elena rolled onto her side, facing away from him. She was very still. It became clear that she was going to ignore him until he left, but there was no way he could leave her in this state.

He walked to her bed and sat down on the bed sheets, rubbing her knee through the comforter. She didn't look at him.

"Elena. Talk to me."

She closed her eyes and lay very still, not saying a word.

"Anything you ask me to do, I promise to do."

"You break your promises." She mumbled despondently.

"Not tonight. Not when you're like this." He squeezed her knee. She turned to face him, her eyes bitter, challenging.

"Then make love to me."

Damon froze. He should have known.

"That's what I want." She rolled back on her side and closed her eyes, dismissing him.

"Ok." The words slipped past his lips, a whisper in the dark.

Elena's eyes opened and she turned to face him. She was searching his face, looking for a hint of duplicity. She must not have found it because she sat up, her apathetic expression changing into something that might appear on a living woman. She didn't say anything, she just looked at him with intensity, waiting for him to take it back.

He swallowed.

"Look, I have to drive Jeremy back. But later tonight, I'll come back to see you."

"Really?" She whispered, hope evident in her voice. Her eyes had light in them again.

"Really."

* * *

**I'm caving again. I warned you that I'm weak willed with my schedule. Um, not even going to attempt to date the next update. Check back in a couple of hours, lol. This story is like crack to update. Oh, and I agree, Stefan is totally a black zebra and an Uh Oh oreo (though I kind of wish Damon could be the Uh Oh oreo, because that sounds adorable). Thanks for playing my reviewing game XD! **


	12. Red Lace

Damon did not know how he was going to get out of this one this time. He wasn't going to sleep with her when she was under the influence of the sire bond. But he had given his word, and he couldn't break it again, not without sending her back into a deep depression. Right now, he was the person she relied on the most, and if he broke her trust… But he would be breaking a much more sacred trust if he slept with her before he knew it was what she really wanted.

"I've never seen you jittery. Ever. What's wrong, Damon?" Jeremy eyed him suspiciously. "You aren't about to kill me again, are you?" Jeremy asked, a homicidal edge creeping into his voice at the idea.

"No! Calm yourself down, Gilbert, before you convince yourself to stake me." Damon scolded him.

They lapsed into car silence again and Damon mentally ordered his hand to stop ticking.

"Elena's sad a lot now." Jeremy said suddenly, staring out the window.

"What?"

"She's sad. And Stefan isn't helping her the way he used to. She was like this when our parents died, and it was Stefan that saved her from it and kept her afloat for so long. But now he doesn't seem to do that anymore." Jeremy turned to look at him. "But you make her happy. I don't know why, but she lights up when she's around you. So don't stop doing that, ok?"

"You are getting too old too quickly." Damon muttered, sincerely taken aback at the encouragement. Little Gilbert was in their corner now.

"Do you want to help me out, then?" Damon almost decided not to say it, but there was no other way to keep his promise.

"How?"

"She wants me to go see her tonight, but I have a feeling Stefan isn't going to like me sneaking out. He may not want to be around her, but he doesn't want me around her even more." Jeremy's eyebrows shot up.

"What do you want me to do?"

* * *

Elena couldn't decide whether she should wait in her pjs or rifle through her underwear for something vaguely sexy. She couldn't handle the waiting. The last time they had sex, it had been so spontaneous and intense and amazing, but she had gotten used to the idea that it wouldn't be happening again anytime soon. After all the self-righteous speeches he had given her, she thought that that was the one thing he wouldn't say yes to when she asked.

Nerves attacked her while she wondered what to do with her self. She decided on a shower. It would take them at least an hour to drive up to the lake house, so she would take a long one.

After she finished blow-drying her hair, brushing her teeth and putting on the barest hint of makeup, she walked out of the bathroom adjoining her bedroom.

Damon.

He was sitting on the windowsill, a dark angel lit by the street lamp. He was wearing all black, making his smoky blue eyes even more captivating when they flashed towards her. The air between them was charged and Elena was suddenly dizzy with nerves.

He stood up and walked over to her. She was a bit bashful, excitement and longing hitting her all at once.

She made herself meet his eyes, though, and they were so entrancing that she got lost in them. She waited patiently, waited for him to make the first move.

He touched her cheek and his bewitching eyes held her still.

"Are you sure this is what you want from me?" Damon asked, his voice very low.

There was the barest hint of pain in him as he implored her silently to reconsider. He promised her, though, and there was no way she was letting him break another promise.

"Yes." She breathed.

They stood together for a few moments then, looking into each other's eyes. Damon lifted his other hand to tenderly cradle her face. He leaned into her, his eyes still open and watching her reaction. His lips barely brushed hers when her eyes fluttered shut and she let a sigh of happiness go.

She couldn't respond to his kiss, though she tried very hard. She pulled back.

"You have to release me." She said. A pause the length of a breath passed as his eyebrows pulled together and he hesitated before giving up the command that he had put so much effort into placing on her.

"You can touch me, Elena."

Elated, she immediately stepped into him and captured his lips with hers. She wrapped her arms around his strong body. Damon lightly held her to him, his mouth unhurriedly caressing hers. Electricity ran through her from where they touched, igniting passion. She pressed against him, trying to tell him with her body how much his long awaited touch meant to her. What he did to her.

He kissed across her jaw, nibbling on her ear before he began his descent down her neck. She swayed on her knees at that. She grasped his shirt tightly in her hands, pulling him as close as she could and steadying herself. His hands rested on her waist and kept her in position as his lips continued their heavenly trail to her collarbone.

He lifted her up then, sweeping her legs out from beneath her and carrying her to the bed.

* * *

Damon laid her down on the bed the way he had always imagined he might lay his wife down, back when he was human and he had such idle fantasies of marriage and love. He knelt over her, watching shivers run through her at the touch of his hands on her smooth thighs. She pulled him down on top of her, her legs adjusting to accept him between them. He nuzzled her chest, inhaling the wonderful smell of her breasts. His teeth grew and he sank them into her neck, catching her off guard. She yelped, a yelp that quickly turned into a loud moan. She arched her back and held his head to her neck, and he heard soft moans on every hasty breath she let out.

Her blood rolled over his tongue. Vampire blood didn't sate hunger the way human blood did, but it was definitely a pleasant aphrodisiac for the drinker. The effect on the vampire letting blood… that was more extreme. Elena was rubbing against him everywhere, clutching at him and moaning hard. He had never wanted anyone more in his life than when he felt her slender body writihing in craving for him.

He drew back and looked up at her barely open, lust-glazed eyes. She was lost in the pleasure he had given her. He raised himself up and fed his arm to her. She bit down hard and the first suck caused a moan to rumble from deep within him. He closed his eyes, lost in the waves of pleasure that were connected to each draw she made. She pulled back, her blood red eyes sparkling with delight, watching his reaction. She quickly tugged his shirt off while he recovered from the euphoria of the blood letting, her hands running over his chest.

His body was thrumming with desire now and his hands became more forceful in their treatment of her. Her robe had fallen open and given him a new target. He folded the bra cup under each of her breasts, too impatient to remove it completely, placing wet kisses over her skin and tasting her. Her bare breasts were pushed up by the fabric of the bra still trying to contain them. He took a shaky breath, tempted to rip her underwear off and delve into her at the sight of that. Instead, he ran his teeth over her nipples, listening to her heart quicken as he rolled his tongue around each and her skin tightened in response. He grasped both breasts, biting her lightly, enough to make her gasp but not nearly enough to draw blood.

When the tugging of her hands in his hair told him she couldn't take anymore, he reached around to possessively grab her ass, his lips at her neck to lick any remaining blood off. She gasped as he rubbed his hardness against her, tilting her head back, her eyes falling shut at the sensations. He slipped one hand between them to tease her clit, and he watched her lovely expressions as she realized what he was doing. Her eyes opened, a breathy sigh escaping her pink lips as she met his eyes. He couldn't help a small smirk, she was so innocent and sweet looking. Her silky thighs squeezed him tightly and he pushed them further apart with his hips, rotating them against her sex and shivering at her cries when he did so.

He left passionate kisses on her taught, delicious stomach while he hastily peeled the robe away from the rest of her body. His fingers left a trail of goosebumps in their wake as he opened her robe by running his hands from her breasts to her upper thighs with a feather-light touch. He took a moment to really appreciate her underwear and her beautiful body. He realized with a jolt that they were the ones he had picked out of her underwear drawer jokingly on two different occasions, a striped multicolored bra and red lacy panties. _Ooh, put these in the YES pile. _The sight was a stab in his heart at the memory of her then, alive and well and happy, with plenty of energy to argue. She had paid close attention to him, even then. Human Elena had taken note of such things. He was betraying Human Elena right now.

He felt his hunger for her die. He hung his head, pausing in the pillaging of her body. Elena's smooth legs slid over his while she pushed herself ever closer to him, urging him to continue. When he didn't, she angled his face so she could see him, concerned.

"What is it?"

"Those are the underwear that I picked out. You remembered." He said softly.

"Sorry, they really don't match." She grinned. Her eyes raked over him, confused.

"I thought you liked them."

"I do. I love them." He hung his head again, his chest tight. Their aroused breathing filled the silence. "Why are you making me do this to you?"

Elena sat up on her elbows then, motivating him to sit up on his knees too as her mouthwatering breasts drew within biting distance.

"I want to be close to you, Damon, as close as two people can be. I want to feel your love everywhere." She whispered, stroking his neck with her hand. "I want to be one with you."

Damon couldn't answer. He was thinking about that face again, her face when the sire bond dissipated and she realized what he had done without knowing her feelings were real. So different from how she was looking at him right now. He was thinking of Stefan's words-_ What do you think is going to happen?_

"Which is why we can't do this." Elena conceded softly.

* * *

His beautiful eyes were heartbreaking at that moment and she knew he wouldn't get any pleasure out of this. That was the whole point of it, to be happy and one together.

She was hurting him again and she had swore to herself that she wouldn't do that. She was torturing him. She readjusted her bra so it was functional again and began to cover herself up. She took a moment to try to quench the burning inside of her that was still aflame.

"Elena…"

"It's ok. I know you don't want to do this right now, I shouldn't push you into it." Elena laughed. "I think our roles are supposed to be reversed here though."

"You made me happy, Damon." She smiled at him, trying to cheer up the crestfallen man before her. "You kept your word to cheer me up. I won't hold this against you." She rested her head against his shoulder as she sat up, enjoying the freedom to lean against him when she chose to again. His arms wrapped around her and he kissed the top of her head, resting his head against it. He rubbed her shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

"The smug and arrogant Damon Salvatore, who apologizes to no one, apologizing to me." She sighed, closing her eyes to enjoy the feel of him all around her. "That's pretty special."

"I'm sure it won't be the last time. I always manage to hurt you." He groaned, and she knew how bad he felt.

"Yes." She sat back so he could see she was smiling at him, "But you make me so happy too."

* * *

**Sorry I didn't get this out as quickly as I predicted! Before you kill me, know that I almost killed myself when I wrote that. I was bashing my head against a wall, thinking, "Why can't it be right? Why?!". Hopefully you can be patient a little while longer. On a separate note, there are no good synonyms for "gently". They all suck. So I apologize for an annoying over usage of it with Damon, because he's a badass, violent vampire who needs to tone it down when he handles Elena. Not to say that he won't ever be rough because, um, yes, yes he will.**

**One final note- award for best Damon metaphor in the reviews goes to a coconut: hard and dark on the outside, pure light on the inside. Not to mention yummy ;). Love it. Brilliant.**


	13. Faster

Damon woke up before the sun came up. If Baby Gilbert had succeeded in distracting Stefan while he slipped out, then hopefully he wouldn't have to fight for his life when he got back. He looked over at his sweet Elena before he began to slide out of the bed. A hand grabbed him immediately.

"I knew you would try to escape. Not this time." Elena said, her voice sleepy.

"Yeah well, I should probably get back before Stefan realizes I'm gone and starts accusing me of manhandling you." _Which is exactly what I did._ Damon could not feel worse about himself. Well, if he had actually gone through with the deed then he would feel worse, but not by much. He was sure that Elena would take it as a violation of her when she was free of the sire bond. He had betrayed her trust by trying not to betray her trust.

He really wished he didn't have to imagine her as two separate people with opposite desires, especially when the one whose desires matched his was so much more pushy and vocal about it.

"I'm banking in, then, before you go." He lay back down next to her, looking her over with a surge of adoration and lust. The streetlight was hitting her just right, illuminating how perfect her skin was. Her deep brown eyes languidly blinked a few times before focusing on him.

"And just what are you banking in on?"

"Another promise." She smiled, shy at his close and thorough appraisal of her.

"My track record is pretty shot at this point." He had no idea what else he could have possibly promised her.

"Do remember when you kissed me to invoke the sire bond to keep me away?"

"Oh."

She scooted closer to him so that their noses were barely touching. Her cute, pink lips were curved up in a coy grin.

"Kiss me again. Just like that."

Damon brushed his forehead against hers. Well, after what they had done last night, he couldn't hurt future sire-bond free Elena more with one kiss. He pressed his lips tenderly to hers._ Just like that._

He had been thinking of the first time he thought he kissed her, when she was actually Katherine. In that moment, he was overwhelmed with an alien feeling of love that had, ironically, bore no resemblance to his feelings for Katherine. It was the feeling of trust, knowing he could count on her to gather the forces to rescue him from a burning building. He knew then that she was someone that he could give his heart to and, if she accepted it, she would protect and treasure it. Since that moment was stolen by Katherine, a woman incapable of such love, he wanted to return it to her. It was her moment now, as it should have been in the first place.

* * *

Damon stayed a ways back from the cabin and listened. Sure enough, Stefan was awake and making breakfast for Jeremy and Matt. He texted Jeremy. He had to wait around for another thirty minutes before Jeremy woke up and texted him.

_Hey, you here?_

_You make me wait any longer and I may accidentally nip you in practice_

Damon texted back, his mood foul. He was not a patient man.

He listened as Stefan greeted Jeremy and Jeremy challenged him to an early morning fight. Stefan busied himself in the kitchen, finishing up, and then headed out with him to the back. Damon slipped inside.

He was pouring himself a morning shot of bourbon to try to drown his angst over Elena when the two traipsed back inside. Jeremy was sweaty and out of breath. Stefan looking pretty normal.

"Did you kick his butt?" The question was directed at Stefan as Damon shot an irritated look at Jeremy, still pissed he had him wait so long.

"Can I talk to you outside, Damon?" Stefan had that creepy half-smile on, his hands folded calmly behind his back. Too calm. He looked like Ripper Stefan. Damon was immediately on alert.

"Sure." He set his bourbon back on the counter and glanced at Jeremy for any tell that he had let slip where he had been. He looked pretty innocent, no longer paying attention to them as he scooped himself up some scrambled eggs.

Damon followed Stefan outside, a tense silence hanging between them. When they reached the end of the pier, Stefan finally turned to face him.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice that you were gone?" That eerie smile on his face caused Damon's entire body to tense up in preparation for a fight.

Damon decided quickly that faking innocence was not going to work. Stefan knew, somehow. He looked away from his furious brother.

"I-"

"Just shut up, Damon. I thought you had changed. I trusted you. I thought you loved her as much as I did. But you've finally turned into the monster you've always tried so hard to convince people you are. You know she has no control over what she's feeling right now, and yet you continue to sleep with her. You told me you wouldn't do something like this, and I believed you. Again. And you broke your word. Again."

"Look, it isn't like that." Damon's temper flared, his stomach sick at the hate his brother was looking at him with. "We aren't having sex." It was technically true.

"So what, then? It's still innocent, as long as its not sex? Everything but? What does "not sex" even mean to you?" Stefan's voice was drenched with disdain, his hands clenched into shaking fists at his side. For some reason he hadn't launched himself at him just yet, but he could tell how badly he wanted to attack him. Kill him. He was probably worried that Damon could still overpower him. He wanted to do as much damage as he could with his words.

"You abandoned her. I told you that I wouldn't stay away from her if you didn't support her. She needs us, right now, Stefan. She needs someone she can rely on. How many more people can she lose before she drowns in the loss and becomes worse than we ever were? If she doesn't have someone, then she's going to go down the same path we did when we were turned, and it was a bloody, miserable mess that took us more than a hundred years to climb out of. " Damon defended himself. In his heart, he felt his brother's words were true so his words were weak.

"That's on you!" Stefan bellowed, his accusing finger right in Damon's face again. "Nothing will ever be the same between us now. I can't support her when you ruined our relationship. I can't even look at her when all she does is hang on you and defend you violating her. You isolated her from me when you betrayed both of our trusts, and I will kill you for it." Stefan was shaking badly, his nose nearly touching Damon's as he stepped right up into his face. His eyes were so hot with anger that it was all Damon could do not to step back, not to let him get the upper hand. Not to let him be right.

"I do love her. I am trying to do the right thing here. I will do everything I can not to hurt her." Damon said, not knowing how to do sincere well but trying his best at it. He knew his brother could see that he agreed with him. He was absolutely guilty of all those things.

"I wish I'd never let you back in my life. When you turn your back, I will kill you." Stefan's voice was low and dangerously quiet, his eyes burning holes through Damon. Then he turned from him and stormed back up to the cabin.

* * *

_Klaus here. Backup NOW._

Bonnie's text sent a shot of adrenaline through Elena. She had just arrived home from a very tense day at school when her phone started buzzing. She was immediately out the door and on her way to Bonnie's. Caroline had received a similar text and arrived just before her. The front door was wide open and the two of them were standing talking to Klaus in her living room.

"Bonnie, are you ok?" Elena checked her friend over for damage. Caroline was busy being rude to Klaus. Klaus was absorbing it with some spectacle of patience.

"Look, you no-good backstabber, you can't just come into my friend's house and order her around. Not while I'm around." Caroline spat.

"Caroline. Good to see you again. You're lovely when you're angry. " Klaus smiled.

"Ugh, you try, Elena." Caroline threw her hands up in the air.

"What do you want, Klaus?" Elena kept a hand protectively on her friend's shoulder. Klaus paused.

"I'm just innocently checking up on her progress with the spell for the cure. I don't know why you girls felt the need to blow in here. We were just talking, weren't we Bonnie?"

"He said he was going to motivate me." Bonnie looked at Elena with meaning. Jeremy.

"Well, your boyfriend is refusing to draw his mark. So actually what I said is I was going to use you _as_ motivation. But before I resort to that, I'm feeling generous today and I thought you would like to give him a call and motivate him for me?" Klaus said, a merciless, cold glint in his eyes.

"Why would Jeremy refuse to do that?" Elena asked, her grip on Bonnie's arm tightening.

"Because he doesn't like vampires when you're not there." Klaus's jaw clenched as he handed over his phone to Bonnie.

"He threatened Matt." Caroline was checking her texts. "Can't you just ask nicely for once without threatening anyone?"

"Not when you all are so busy plotting my demise." Klaus said coolly.

"That was the hybrids, not us." Caroline looked down, remembering what he did to them.

"Tyler is most certainly one of you. And don't even try to say you didn't have anything to do with it." Klaus snarled at Caroline. Caroline looked terrified as his eyes lingered on her for a moment too long.

"Look, we'll get Jeremy to do it. Just relax, we have it under control. Why are you so impatient to get everything done?"

He advanced on her.

"Because people as old as I am don't wait over a thousand years planning something and then suddenly start to hurry up unless there's a good reason. Silas was working with Bonnie now, and I hardly think that the hunter showing up in her town was merely a coincidence. The exhibit with that magic little rock with half the spell for unlocking him carved on it just happens to come to town as well? No, there's a time limit on this. And we are not going to miss it. So call your boyfriend and tell him to start drawing the other half of the spell before I call him for you and he gets to listen to some very unpleasant things."

* * *

This was the last time Elena left Jeremy alone. She asked Caroline to drive up with Bonnie because she had to get up there fast. Why hadn't Damon or Stefan called her and told her that Klaus was threatening Matt and talking to Jeremy?

Several minutes later, she came to a stop outside the lake house. It was too quiet. Jeremy had sounded afraid and angry on the phone, but she thought that had just been because Bonnie was in danger.

It was too quiet.

* * *

**Cheers for 100+ followers! No pressure or anything. Thanks so much for liking my story enough to want to read more. Love you guys! Even when I torture you ;). So, I get way more hits to the chapters with the dark, sexy names. I'm tempted to just name the next chapter "Dark and Sexy" and see how many hits I get. Just kidding. Sort of. Your reviews are giving me some really good ideas. Nothing like feedback to kick the creative juices into overdrive. Also, pretty psyched that some of you agreed that Damon and Elena couldn't do the dirty deed quite yet. Sorry I made the rest of you cry with frustration****. **


	14. The Truth

Elena was frantic. She couldn't find anyone at the lake house. She tried Damon's phone- no answer. Stefan's was the same.

"Bonnie, oh my god. Oh my god." She started crying, holding the phone with shaking hands. "Where are they?"

"They aren't there?" Bonnie exclaimed. "Call Jeremy right now."

"Ok, ok, ok," Elena hung up, whispering it to convince herself that was what it would be. She dialed Jeremy's number.

No answer.

"Oh god." Elena sobbed, grabbing her hair, not sure what to do.

Her phone rang.

"Stefan? Oh my god, Stefan where are you? Where is Jeremy?"

"I'm sorry I missed you." She let out a shaky sob, relief slamming into her as though she had fallen five stories onto it, "Jeremy went a little crazy after Klaus stopped by. With Matt at school there was no human stability and Klaus just antagonized him. He tried to kill me after Bonnie called. It was the final push over the edge. I had to knock him out. Damon is checking on Matt and I'm driving Jeremy back. He needs to see Bonnie right now. Elena, before Klaus showed up and started making demands, Jeremy finished drawing the mark. Tell Bonnie that we're bringing her the drawing and to keep working on the rock spell. I want to do this tonight if we can."

"She's driving up here, I'll tell her to turn around. Tonight?" Elena felt her breath hitch. She might be human by tonight?

"Assuming that Silas isn't buried in Africa, that is." He mused. She said goodbye and hung up.

Damon still wasn't picking up. She tried Matt next.

"Hey. Don't worry, Klaus hasn't ripped my head off just yet."

"Matt! I'm glad you're ok. Is Damon with you?"

"No, he's not. Something wrong?"

She still had the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Will you call me if you see him?"

"Sure." She hung up. She couldn't stop her panicky sobs. She needed to talk to Damon. Now.

* * *

Elena couldn't sit still waiting for Stefan to arrive with Jeremy. Bonnie had the rubbings, the photocopies and the pictures of the rock spread out on her coffee shop table, writing things down and muttering to herself from time to time. Caroline took her hand, sympathetic.

"I'm sure he's fine. Klaus is right here, what else could have happened to him?" She shot Klaus a dirty look. He frowned at her, a storm brewing.

"I kept Tyler alive for your sake, Caroline. You would do well to show me a little more gratitude." He tilted back in Bonnie's chair, crisscrossing his fingers in front of him.

"Yes, thank you for killing his mother." She hissed.

Elena stood up. She wished briefly that they would solve it in a hotel already. She didn't have the patience to listen to their bickering.

"He tried to kill me. I had to send a message." Klaus repeated.

"I'm going to go look for him." Elena raked a hand through her hair and headed for the door, completely fed up.

"No, Elena, you have to stay here. Stefan will be back any second with Shane. We can't have you going missing too, not if Klaus is right and there is a time limit for the spell." Caroline took her hand again, stroking the back of it with her thumb in a soothing manner. She pulled her down next to her on the couch.

Stefan arrived a short while later, touting Jeremy on his back, with Shane right behind him. Shane still had no idea that they knew who he really was. Klaus disappeared the moment he heard them drive up, sure that Shane would recognize him, magic professor that he was. Stefan laid Jeremy on the couch and then handed the sketch to Bonnie. She looked it over briefly, then a smile lit up her face.

"Oh thank god, I thought I was doing it wrong, but this makes sense now." Shane hurried over to the table to look at what Bonnie had put together. Elena pulled Stefan to the side.

"I haven't heard from Damon, and neither has Matt. He's not picking up. Did he say where he was going?"

Stefan looked away. She knew he preferred not to talk to her about Damon.

"I'm sure he's fine. I'll go look for him, ok? Text me if you guys leave for the ritual." Stefan started to walk away and Elena grabbed him again. She held his hand much the way Caroline had for her.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry this is so uncomfortable for you, but thank you for doing this for me. And for him. I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but he really loves you." She had always admired how selfless Stefan was. Even when he was so mad at his brother, he would still help him out. She was sad she couldn't give her whole heart to him, but her heart had made its choice now and she was never turning back.

Stefan's body tightened. He looked at her hand on his and nodded silently before pulling away and starting out the door again.

* * *

Damon felt like he had been hit in the head with a hundred bricks. Ugh, vervain. Someone must have shot him full of it to knock him out when his tolerance was so high. He really didn't want to open his eyes, but this feeling was usually a sign that he was no longer in control of the situation. He heard the last of his vertebrate realign, a soft popping sound, and realized that somebody had snapped his neck as well.

Well, shit. This couldn't be good.

The strangest sense of déjà vu washed over him. He had seen this river, the trees, heard the songbirds whistling melodically. He recognized the blue light of dusk washing out the colors. A day he would never forget. The day he transitioned.

Damon sat up, every muscle in his body shrieking and begging him not to do so. He was at the Quarry, where Emily had brought him and Stefan after his father shot them. This was where Stefan had forced him to turn when he wanted to die.

He wasn't chained up. No one was torturing him. What the hell was going on?

"I was going to kill you before you woke up. I wanted to erase the last 145 years." A voice came from behind him. Damon swiveled, finally noticing Stefan in the shadows, sitting with his legs pulled up to his chest and his back resting against the wood of the crumbling shack.

"Why…. Why didn't you?" He rubbed a hand over his face, the headache from the vervain pounding in his mind.

"Between collecting vampires for Jeremy to kill, this past week I've been traveling around, researching the sire bond. I needed to know the extent of it if we failed to make Elena human."

Damon sat silently, wondering where the anger and hatred that Stefan had been exploding with dissipated to. His brother looked unbearably sad.

"Stefan, you were there when that witch told us the only way to break it was for me to send her away."

"And she also told us that the sire bond comes from human feelings. I knew that Elena cared for you before she was turned, that was why she had a choice to make. But I started thinking. Why hadn't we bonded to Katherine? I needed to know. Why had this only happened to her? I contacted other witches." A tear slipped out of the shadowy plane of his face and into a sliver of light on his chin. "We didn't love Katherine, Damon. Not really. We were just young and infatuated with her, even you. Elena, she loved you. She really, truly loved you. The sire bond is just a magical consequence of loving someone so much you would literally do anything for them." Stefan held a hand to his forehead, misery cracking his voice.

"The more I learned about it, the angrier I became. I was angry with Klaus for ripping me away from her, causing this to happen. I was angry with myself for pushing her away, right into you. I hated you the most, though, because you succeeded in making her love you. It didn't upset me when she wouldn't give you the time of day, but you proved yourself to her. You stood by her side through bad and good, even when I couldn't. You changed for her."

Damon was speechless. This was the brother he knew, the sensitive martyr. Here was the guilt-ridden bleeding heart.

"Why are you telling me this? Why didn't you kill me?"

Stefan finally looked him right in the eyes, his watery grief touching Damon.

"Didn't you ever stop to think that taking the word of a witch who hated you, who wanted to get back at you, was a bad idea?"

Damon felt his heart still.

"You were so convinced that Elena could never truly have feelings for you because she pushed you away for so long and chose me, you accepted what she told you without question. But she lied. I wanted so badly to get her to love me again that I lied to you too. I thought I could make her believe that you were hurting her. I thought if I could just make her human she would remember what we were to each other. I knew that you couldn't hurt her, that deep down you knew that she was really in love with you and you just didn't want to admit it. You two can't stay away from each other. But I hated you, and I used the worst things you feared about yourself to hurt you. I lost her and I just wanted to hurt you." Stefan admitted, an apology hidden there.

Damon made himself breath again. Stefan's heartbreak he could forgive. He could forgive his brother for acting selfishly for once in his life. He knew he loved Elena too, and he hadn't actually killed him, which proved that he still loved him even through all this. But now this needed to come to an end. He had to know.

"Tell me the other way to break the sire bond, Stefan."

* * *

**I owe you another apology! I promised Delena moments, but I couldn't fit them in just yet. Yeah, I can't spell these names right to save my life. If anyone's keeping track, that's now Kol, Stefan and Katherine whose names I've mangled. Also, I'm a little shaky on my literary terms, thanks for the correction there. We are getting close to the end *****big spoiler considering the ending of this*******. **The plan is to update every day and finish on the 16****th****, when the hiatus ends and we get to see what really happens. I won't bring in Vaughn because I am not yet in love with him and we have basically no info on him (bring on the Aussie accent though, I'm predicting a huge crush in my future).**

**Your reviews have been super helpful lately. Its good to know what you want to have happen and I'll try to give you what we all desperately need to see ;). **


	15. Broken

_I'm fine. I love you too._

Elena was unsure whether she was out of her mind angry or weak in the knees with relief when she saw the text from Damon. It was a little strange that he would say that, considering she hadn't professed her love to him. She'd just called him sixteen times and left several distraught voice messages.

She called him once more.

"Elena."

"Damon, why the hell aren't you answering? Where were you? I was so worried. You can't just disappear like that, not in Mystic Falls. Disappearing means dead here_."_

"Sorry. I'm ok. Where are you?"

"We're on our way to the exhibit up at Whitmore college. We're lucky we met Shane because otherwise we would have gone to where the map led us, but the sarcophagus was dug up years ago and is on tour in that exhibit Bonnie said you two saw when you visited Shane for me."

"Ok, I'm with Stefan and we'll meet you there. I love you, Elena."

There it was again. Elena blinked a few times.

"Are you being held prisoner by someone? Are they threatening to kill you? Say 'I'm fine, Elena' if they are." She whispered, very serious.

"No! I'm better now. I'll see you soon."

_I'm better now? _He hung up. Elena, uneasy at the very strange conversation, tuned back in to what was going on in the car. Bonnie and Shane were discussing logistics.

"I just don't know if I have enough power to do this spell. Last time I tried something like this, my Grams ended up dead. I'm only one witch. Qetsiyah had a lot of the witches backing her, feeding her power."

"Don't worry about it. I have something that will help." Shane replied. Bonnie met Elena's eyes in the rearview mirror, worried.

* * *

Shane had extra keys to the exhibit as he was the honorary curator for it. It was late, so the school museum was dark and empty.

Matt opted to stay away from the very likely dangerous adventure, a safe choice for the only true human in their inner circle. Jeremy, however, had insisted on coming when he woke up, and even despite the danger Elena would rather have him next to herself and Bonnie than anywhere else.

Shane led them through some of the exhibits and into a backroom, chattering about the artifacts and the cure and Silas the whole time, making himself out to be a romantic hero of love. If she hadn't known about him, she would have thought that he was talking so much to make them more comfortable about walking through the very creepy museum with all the lights off. Knowing what she knew, however, she saw the insane, wild joy in Shane's eyes and suspected he was talking to cover the jittery excitement at finally getting to this moment.

They came at last to a backroom. Shane hit the lights and dim spotlights illuminated the four artifacts in the room, allowing darkness to pervade the rest of the room. Smack in the middle was a very large tomb-replica, inside of which was an ancient and very crusty sarcophagus.

Bonnie and Shane started setting up candles in a circle around the fake tomb along with other witchy things needed for the ritual. Jeremy watched them, twitchy, his eyes protectively trained on Bonnie.

Bonnie nodded subtly to Jeremy, who slipped out of the room. Off to check on Klaus, make sure he had gotten in and was following them. They were about to start.

"So when we you start to feel drained, I'm going to open this box and it will give you the power you need to break the seal." The Professor murmured, setting a small black box down on top of the sarcophagus. Bonnie examined it, fear showing through.

"What's in it?"

"Don't worry about it. Just trust me." Shane sounded a little too forceful. His nice guy act was starting to come undone, so close to having his plan come to fruition. Bonnie was becoming increasingly nervous as his mask fell off, bit by bit.

Shane stepped back finally and Bonnie took a deep breath. A hush came over the group as they watched. Bonnie held her hands over the sarcophagus, tilted her head back, closed her eyes and began chanting.

Damon and Stefan filed in, and Elena's heart lit up with joy. Damon was looking at her… she couldn't describe the look, but it made her heart flop. He pressed his finger to his lips in a _Shhhhhh_ gesture, smiling a little at her expression when she saw him. He stood next to her, and she was more than a little surprised when he laced his fingers through hers.

Bonnie's chanting went on for another thirty minutes before she swayed on her feet. She opened her eyes, sweat beginning to bud on her forehead, and nodded to Shane. He stepped forward and released the lid of the box on top of the sarcophagus.

A thick, black cloud began a lazy ascent from the small box, moving as though it were a snake. Bonnie backed away, fearful, but when she came to the circle of candles, she found she couldn't move any farther.

"What the hell is that?" Damon whispered next to her. Elena stepped forward, grabbing Shane very tightly.

"What is it, Shane?" She growled.

"That is Expression, the energy of human sacrifices that he's been storing up for this occasion." Klaus' voice interrupted them very quietly from behind. He looked somber and almost disgusted as he watched the cloud encounter the invisible barrier made by the candles and curl closer towards Bonnie. Bonnie was terrified and started shouting for help. They all rushed forward, but they too were blocked by the invisible barrier of the candles. Elena tried to knock over a candle, but it wouldn't budge even against vampire strength.

"There's nothing you can do for her now." Shane smiled. The cloud grew larger and larger until Bonnie had nowhere else to go. Then it touched her and the entire cloud flooded her body in an instant and disappeared.

"BONNIE!" Jeremy screamed, pounding his fists against the barrier.

Bonnie was stunned for a moment. Then she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, they were pure black, from pupils to eyelids.

Her voice came out a harsh shout as her hands snapped back over the sarcophagus in tense claws. Wind started to blow from nowhere and electricity literally crackled in the air. The sarcophagus began to shake.

A deafening crack split the air and they all had to look away from the blinding light.

Bonnie fell back, beyond the scope of the now moveable candles, panting hard. She immediately vomited and started to cry. Jeremy was at her side in a moment.

Klaus vamped up behind Shane as he started towards the sarcophagus and caught him by the arms, twisting them behind his back so he was helpless. Shane's insane excitement turned to despair as he realized that he had been had. He started to yell and moan, begging with them as tears budded in his eyes.

Elena walked forward then, tentatively, until she reached the cracked sarcophagus. Inside was a very beautiful man in medieval clothing, perfectly preserved. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully. In his hand, folded over his chest, was a white lily in full bloom.

Elena reached for it, hypnotized by a sound in her head that she knew was the flower, beckoning her wordlessly to touch it.

She drew her hand back.

"I can't."

"Elena, that's for you." Klaus said, deceptively calm.

"I don't want it."

"You do and you'll take it." Klaus was starting to growl now.

"It's only for one, Klaus. One immortal. I just know it, and I know who should have this." Elena turned her eyes on Stefan. Stefan was rooted in place, his eyes wide and shocked at her sacrifice. The unhappiest vampire she had ever met. If anyone should be human again, it should be him. He should be allowed to find a wife, have kids, and live a life without his cursed blood lust. She'd wished for it a million times when they were dating and she knew that this wasn't what she wanted in the end.

She wanted a life with Damon. She would find another way around the sire bond. If she became human she would grow old and die and he would be left alone again, and she couldn't stand the idea of him alone ever again.

Klaus's low growl turned into a roar and he threw Professor Shane across the room, vamping towards her and grabbing the flower from the sarcophagus. He held her head forcefully and thrust the flower under her nose.

Damon was immediately upon him and the two rolled away in a snarling ball of warp speed. Elena didn't have a chance to breathe before she fell to the ground from the violence of their movements.

"NoooooOOOOO!" Shane sprinted across the room, reaching for the flower that fell on the ground. Bonnie had warned them that if he touched the man in the sarcophagus, his essence would be transferred to the body and he would be reunited with his very powerful other half. But he wasn't going for the body, he was going for the flower.

Elena watched in confusion as he lifted the flower to his nose. Klaus and Damon stopped in their tracks, stupefied. Stefan was the only one who moved fast enough to stop him.

"No, that is not for you." He growled, wrenching Shane's hand away and pinning him as Klaus had.

"Just let me die already… Let me be with her! Let me be with them! I've lived long enough in loneliness!" Shane howled miserably. Stefan was taken aback, his empathy showing through, but he kept a steel grip on him.

"Elena, smell the flower."

"No."

"Elena, smell the damn flower." Stefan shouted.

"No, I won't! It'll be wasted on me. If I turn back into a human, I know now that I'll end up a vampire anyway. I was made to be a vampire so we can be together, Damon. But you, Stefan, you were never supposed to be this. You would appreciate humanity more than anyone else in this room." Damon's mouth was hanging open at her words. Klaus rolled his eyes.

"Very touching. But I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

Caroline launched herself at him. He was suddenly very preoccupied with the furious blond.

Shane took advantage of their surprise once more to break free of Stefan, withdrawing and opening a small vial from his pocket. The same black smoke rose from it and Shane stepped into it. His eyes grew black and a terrifying voice shouted harsh words they didn't understand. Everyone in the room froze.

Shane carefully pulled the flower from Stefan's stiff grip. Black smoke curled off of his skin like it was leaking from his pores, unable to be contained in his powerless body.

Shane lifted the flower to his nose and inhaled. The flower immediately began to shrivel and die.

The smoke burst from Shane's body, turning on him like a predator would on prey. Shane began to scream, black goo oozing from his eyes. The cloud undulated and constricted around him. Shane shouted and howled until his cries died into one last gasp and he fell to his knees, then, shakily, the floor. The smoke dissipated in the air.

The man in the box immediately began to dessicate, warping from perfectly preserved to dust in a matter of moments.

* * *

Stefan was packing when Damon leaned against the frame of his door. Damon surveyed the tidy mess in silence for a while. Stefan let the silence stretch.

"You leaving?"

"For a while."

Damon was quiet.

"You think you're going to snap and try to Van Helsing me again?"

"No, I'm done with that. But I have to get my head clear and keep my end of the bargain. Besides, I think Elena's right. I shouldn't be a vampire, I know it in my heart. If that's what she wants, if that's what she's willing to give up to be with you, then I'm happy for you. But in the meantime, there's got to be more cursed immortals out there with magic flowers or whatever that I could try to steal. I just have to find them now."

_If she chooses you, I'll leave town and let you two be happy._

"Well, you don't have to. If you don't want to." Damon shrugged.

"Believe me, I'm not going to stick around for tonight at least." Stefan's eyebrows raised and Damon smirked. Seeing that, Stefan got a nauseated look on his face and continued packing.

"Did you talk to her yet?"

"Nope. I was just about to."

Stefan looked up quickly. He seemed nauseated again, but then he kind of shook it off and laughed a little. He went for his jacket.

"You know what, I think I'm going to go say goodbye to Caroline. Maybe I'll crash with her for one more day. Finish packing tomorrow."

* * *

Elena was sleeping in his bed when he walked in. She had been standing too close to the black smoke when Professor Shane went kaplooey and it seemed to make her sick. He sat next to her on the bed. She mumbled something sleepily and wrapped her arms around his lower torso, nuzzling the side of his hips with her nose. He stroked her hair, watching her slowly wake up.

"Damon. You're here." She smiled.

"Despite everyone's attempts to murder me today, yes. How do you feel?"

She looked up at him, her bambi eyes making his heart thud.

"I'm better now." She smiled sweetly, echoing his earlier words.

Damon couldn't believe this creature might actually be in love with him. Part of him still really did not believe it, thought Stefan must be wrong despite everything he told him. In spite of everything she'd said today about wanting to stay a vampire for him. The other part of him couldn't help hoping it was all true.

"Hey." He sank down into the bed until his eyes were level with hers. "I love you, Elena. I want to be with you until someone eventually kills me, because let's face it, I can be a dick." She frowned at him, but then she giggled a bit.

"But I need to know how you really feel." His pulse quickened.

Suddenly he was terrified, her betrayed face floating before him, and he could barely say the words._ You think she's going to hate me, don't you?_

"If you want to make me happy, you have to do what makes you happy. You have to make your own decisions, no matter what I say. My greatest desire is for you to have free will. If you want to make me happy, you won't ever do what I say again if you don't want to. Ever." He tried to say it as many different ways as possible, not taking any chances with wording or interpretation.

Elena's eyebrows knitted. She sat up in the bed, looking down at him. He rose with her, watching her face anxiously for any changes.

"Is that it? Is that really all it takes? After all this drama? Are you sure?!"

Damon laughed apprehensively.

"That's it. That witch I talked to didn't like me very much, and she had me believing that something like this wouldn't work. I can't believe I didn't at least try it sooner, but I know that it works."

Elena was still looking at him with her eyebrows drawn together. Her face was becoming increasingly difficult to read. She wasn't happy, which made him very nervous.

"How do you feel?" Damon asked, his terror getting the better of him.

Elena slapped him.

* * *

******Tomorrow is a chapter that will thoroughly earn the M rating on this fanfic. There will be a warning so you can skip that part if you want to keep a clean mind but still have closure on the story. THEN** TVD BEGINS AGAIN! This was my jab at the whole sire bond thing, because seriously I have no idea why this WOULDN'T work. Some of you may be like "Wtf, it can't be that easy." to whom I say, "WTF NOT?" and then I slam my head against the TV for the next couple of months. **I think I actually lost a follower from that last chapter, wooooops (maybe it was all the Stefan whining…? by the way, one more video link in youtube- watch?v=3lVKC1kHzQk at 11:39 minutes). W**iki the mythology of Damon's namesake, an old Greek dude. It's an interesting story, really telling of his character, and explains why I spent so many words making sure he and Stefan were still friends at the end of this thing.


	16. Wanted

**If you want to skip the raunchy stuff, it's the middle section. I promised a warning :P!**

* * *

"If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one. Because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second."

-Johnny Depp

* * *

Damon held a hand to his stinging cheek, his heart breaking. He should never have thought to hope that someone as pure and good as she was could love someone with such a tainted and dark past. _I should have killed her when I met her,_ he thought wildly, drowning in despair. _I should have killed her before I fell in love with her and then I would never have had to feel this kind of pain._ He was too much in love to hurt her now, he'd learned his lesson there. Something terrible was going to happen instead. He was going to cry. He was going to start crying right in front of her, like some kind of horrible nightmare where he was Stefan.

"That's for not believing me. I feel exactly the same, Damon." She fumed. "As I've been saying this whole time, the sire bond affects my actions, not my feelings."

Damon raised his eyes slowly, waiting for his emotions to catch up with what she was saying. Her irritation melted into tenderness at his expression. She placed a hand on his cheek, smoothing the pain there.

"You little minx." He growled, a smile easing onto his face. He reached for her, his passion overflowing, about to pull her into a burning kiss when she suddenly wasn't there anymore.

Elena seated herself on the luxurious comfy chair in the corner of his room, daintily crossing her legs.

"Oh no, if you think you get off that easily after everything you made me do trying to convince you…"

Damon eyed her.

"What do you want?"

"Well, as payback, you have to convince me, without touching me or saying a word, how much you want me." She sat back, a fake haughty look plastered on her face.

Damon smirked at her, all the filthy things he was going to do to her racing through his mind. But first there was one last thing he had to do. He stuck his feet up on the bed and leaned back, his arms behind his head. He wiggled his toes at her teasingly.

"Elena, I want you to wash my feet right now."

Elena's eyebrows shot up. Then she looked him straight in the eye, tilted her head to the side and smiled a little.

"No. But way to set the mood."

_Sire bond broken, definitely._

"Good." Damon finally let the ecstasy roll through him.

On to those filthy things.

* * *

Elena was having trouble keeping up the charade of playful and demanding when inside she was trembling at the smoldering look of desire and mischief that rolled over his eyes.

Damon stripped off his shirt, his eyes holding hers as she had done to him. He was incredibly strong, but just lean enough that he didn't look too much like the incredible hulk. He slid off the bed and walked towards her, again bringing to mind a jungle cat, powerful, relaxed and arrogant as hell.

When he reached her, he kept her in suspense for a few moments, his burning eyes raking her body and then returning to hold her stare, as though he had too many ideas and was picking one. She could feel her challenging, impress-me look chipping off and giving into the raw, squirming animalistic desire erupting in her lower stomach. He drew closer and placed both hands on the armrests, leaning in to her neck, his breath tickling her and sending shivers cascading through her body. She tried to keep still. He inhaled leisurely.

"Mmmmhhhmm…" He murmured appreciatively, his breath trailing from her ear to her lower neck. When he moved his face before her, he was so close that his gorgeous blue eyes had complete control over her.

His eyes flicked down to her lap and back up, commanding.

She spread her legs.

He knelt between them. He pushed her skirt up lightly by touching only the fabric, his hands just millimeters above her thighs, the fabric tingling on her skin as she became more and more exposed to him.

He bent over so his head was hidden under her ridden-up skirt. She inhaled sharply when her underwear started to slide off, his hands back on the armrests._ His teeth._ His breath on her lower belly caused her stomach muscles to quiver and clench.

She lifted her butt off the chair so he could ease her underwear off without hindrance. She was so aroused at that point that she really would have washed his feet if he asked again. She would have washed his car to get his lips on her. But his goal wasn't to take them off. With a growl and a powerful jerk of his head, he ripped them in half.

Then his breath was on her sex, and she heard that same moan of approval from him. She was shivering everywhere at this point, trying to steady her breaths. He blew gently, starting from top to bottom, ending on the place she most desperately needed to feel his warm tongue.

He submerged from beneath her skirt, smirking at her reaction, his piercing eyes gloating. He raised one eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, waiting.

"You convinced me." She whimpered, her breath coming in unstable puffs.

In a blur of movement, she was lying belly down on the bed, her skirt pushed all the way up to her waist. Damon placed rough bites all over her ass. His fingers slipped between her legs, expertly manipulating her clit.

Elena bit down on the pillow, her vampire teeth sinking into it and shredding the fabric. Damon moaned, urging her legs farther apart as he moved his kisses to her inner thigh and finally, her sex. His mouth was warm as it covered her, his tongue delving into her in time with the movement of his fingers on her clit. His other hand fondled her ass unapologetically. His movements were languid and deliberate, enjoying every jerk and squirm from her. Elena cried out then, unable to sit still through such pleasure silently.

After several minutes that sent earthquake-size shaking through her body, she finally called for a stop. Using her vampire speed, she switched their positions, straddling his hips. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes sparkling and mischievous as he looked up at her with that same challenging look she had given him.

She tore her dress off her head and he did the same for her bra. Then she bent over him to bite his ear, letting out a little moan as she ground her hips down against him. Finally, he was the one who shuddered. He grasped her hips, pushing her down harder against him as he turned his face to capture her lips in his. She had never tasted herself before, but when his tongue invaded her mouth and caressed her own tongue, she stopped wondering how she felt about it.

She fumbled with his jeans, impatient. He helped her, even more impatient. She showed his clothes more mercy than he had to hers, pulling them off his legs instead of ripping them to shreds the way she wanted to. She hastily did away with his underwear as well. He watched her, a twinkle in his eyes, her hands sliding up his thighs until she ended her journey by licking his length. He closed his eyes and his head rolled back.

She made him cry out, enjoying control over him for once. His strikingly angelic face was contorted in euphoria. He took great pleasure in watching her perform the act for him and she loved him watching her like that.

When she had brought him to the brink twice and left him frustrated both times, he sat up and grabbed her under her arms, lifting her easily and situating her above his waist. She kissed him deeply as she sunk onto him, her lip trembling when he filled her to the brim.

"Aaaah…" Damon groaned, pulling her close to his body when she began to ride him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, the happiness of his arms around her and his warmth inside her incomparable to any she had ever felt. He rested his head on her chest, his hands pressed into her back to hold her to him. She explored his soft hair, enjoying the weakening effect she had on him. She could tell by the way his body relaxed that he loved when she ran her fingers through his hair. She kissed the top of his head in adoration.

Damon flipped them over in the blink of an eye, suddenly using his weight to thrust into her. He was deliberate and commanding in how he pushed in and out of her. She was awed by his strength, and she couldn't help briefly comparing him to Stefan. Stefan had always been so careful with her, too gentle. The first time they had made love, Damon had been tender, but there was an underlying passion that had not been present with Stefan. He released that on her now. Damon knew how to awaken the animal in her and push her to the brink without tipping her over.

"Oh god…" She moaned. Damon stroked her hair out of her face, watching her so closely she was embarrassed at the sounds and the faces he elicited from her. She bit her lip, trying to silence herself. Damon slowed his pace and slid his thumb between her lips, tugging her lower lip free.

"I want to hear you, Elena." Then he pushed into her with such power she threw her head back and couldn't contain another sound.

Another blur of motion and she was pinned to the tall headboard by his hips. She wrapped her legs around him and he secured her hands above her head with his own. Her legs around his waist gave her more control over how deeply he drove into her, so she could focus on him a little better. It was her turn to watch his face as he made love to her, his eyes drifting closed and then widening with pleasure, his jaw slack, breaths coming hard and fast. Her position lifted her breasts to his mouth and he took full advantage of that.

Just when he had fallen into a steady pace that was about to throw her into a whiteout-everything orgasm, he switched their position again with a flash of movement.

"Noooo…" Elena cried, ripped away from the building pleasure, falling back into a state of mindless need. She was on her hands and knees now, her hair spilling over her face.

"This is my favorite position... I'll make it up to you, baby." Damon whispered, all too aware of the state she had been in. He kissed the side of her head sweetly in apology, one hand squeezing her breast while the other hand gently urged her butt up towards him. He ran his hands along the outer curves of her hourglass figure, his nails just barely raking her skin. His hand wrapped up her hair, delicately drawing her head back so he could see every emotion he stirred in her. Then he started up his rhythmic thrusts, progressing from languid and gentle to hard and fast. Elena had never felt him so deep and she understood suddenly why he had moved them. When he leaned over her and kissed her sensitive shoulder, the nape of her neck, she shuddered one last time and cried out as she came around him.

* * *

It was several hours later when they finally lay panting on the bed, halfway wrapped up in the sheets and halfway naked.

"Sorry I broke all your stuff." Elena said, surveying the trashed room.

"You're not allowed to feel sorry about anything right now." Damon grinned, his chest glistening with sweat as it rose and fell at a slowing pace. "I changed my mind about your vampire level emotions. I don't ever want you to learn to control them." Somehow, even after everything they had just done, Elena blushed.

"Oh really?" She turned on her side, the sight of him too tempting. She leaned over and kissed him. "Stefan's definitely gone, right? Because we were not quiet." She was concerned. Damon laughed.

"He was out of here so fast I think he knew better than I did what I was in for." Damon said. She scrunched up her nose.

"Oh, don't say that. You know how special you are to me. I've never had sex like that before."

Damon was on top of her in a second, pinning her down. His intense smoky eyes searched hers, a small smile curving his lips.

"Say it again." He insisted, and she knew immediately what he was talking about.

"I love you." She whispered. He closed his eyes, letting it sink in, his smile growing at the sound. He settled down on her stomach, crossing his hands over her chest and resting his head between her breasts. His weight on top of her was comforting and warm.

"I love you too." Damon murmured against her skin, so quiet she could barely hear him. He lifted his head again.

"Are you sure this is what you want? Because we could still hop on the Stefan train and go searching for more cures with him. Stefan told me once that this was absolutely never what you wanted to be. It's ok if you want to be human, you don't have to do this for me. I'll still be with you either way, for as long as you'll have me."

Elena considered her words carefully, trying to speak objectively and truthfully so he would know she had thought it through.

"I've grown up a lot since I said that, and I wasn't in love with you at the time. Part of me knew that my relationship with Stefan wasn't built to last, so a future as a vampire didn't seem the right choice. As for being a vampire… if I can keep my bloodlust under control, which now that I can drink from blood bags I seem to be able to do, I don't really mind it. You know how to handle my mood swings, and hopefully those will get easier and less intense over time. All I've ever wanted to do was become a writer, and I can still go to college for that. Its not really an occupation where people are going to notice whether you age or not, so I don't think that will be a problem. The only thing I'll really be missing is kids." She ended on a sad note. Damon's heart ached. "Which, considering that there's a cure for vampirism, I'm not entirely sure is impossible." She thought aloud.

"I've never seen it." Damon said gently.

"Yeah, but you'd never seen a werewolf too, before Tyler. Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough. Or at all." Elena grinned, upbeat.

"I don't want you to get your hopes up. That's a pretty important piece of your life to be missing. Of course I'd be up for it if we could ever figure it out, but I don't think you should count on it." Damon insisted. "Are you really sure you can give that up?"

She sat up, her eyes blazing. Damon rolled off and laid next to her, amused at her immediate passion.

"Lots of couples can't have kids. The important thing is that I found someone I can spend my life with, and I'm not going to leave you just so I have the possibility of kids with someone else. If I can't have them with you, I don't want them. You are the love of my life, Damon. I'm done fighting it. I'm not letting you go again."

Damon smiled that happy, open smile that he only showed to her. He kissed her and pulled her to him tightly. She rested her head on his shoulder, her body molding to his. They lay there in comfortable silence listening to one another's heartbeats.

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**Thank you for all your helpful and often flattering reviews! Please let me know what you think one more time :)! I may do a KlausxCaroline story sometime in the future since I couldn't fit it in this story and they were really fun to write. Or possibly, but not likely, a story for Damon and Elena's journey to find the equivalent of a vampire fertility clinic XD. You guys rock for sticking with me to the end and lets keep our fingers crossed for Delena as the hiatus ends and we fall victims to the cruel, cruel TVD writers once more. A thousand bucks says the season does not end like this :P.**

**Final Review Game: Had lots of fun thinking up Damon's favorite position. Any other suggestions…?** **The more fitting/hilarious the name the better ;)**

**Final Final note: Most awesome follower ID goes to 'nihilistpancake', though it was a close call between that and 'iamonthefootballteam'.**

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**I uploaded an epilogue, chapter 17, today that doesn't seem to be viewable for you guys. I sent tech support a message and hopefully they'll get back to me soon. I'll try to delete the chapter and reupload it so you get a notification of a new chapter when it's fixed and you can see it. Thanks for being patient :)! If anyone knows how to fix this or has encountered this before, PM me please.**


	17. Epilogue

**So in honor of 100+ faves, and to celebrate that people keep following this story even though it's technically "completed", here's an epilogue.**

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Stefan entered the Mystic Grill, the slightest edge of anxiety gnawing at his gut. Two years. They had spoken on the phone plenty of times, but meeting face to face was very different. He thought he could handle it now but some part of him wasn't entirely sure.

Paris, Brussels, Sydney… they had been living those last two years like they were trying to speed through the forever that they already had together. They called every once and a while, to check in on his progress in his quest to find another cure. Stefan still hadn't adjusted to the radical change he heard in Damon when they spoke: lighthearted, carefree, bordering on optimistic. His laughs were unrestrained and frequent.

Stefan paused when he saw them. Elena's beauty never failed to surprise and entrance him, even when he thought he was prepared for it. Once you love someone, you never stop loving them, not really. Maybe now, though, he thought he could at least try to convert that love into something more sisterly.

Elena was sipping a drink at the bar, laughing at something Damon had said. Her changed sense of fashion made her look older than he remembered, dark lace-up boots accentuating her slender calves, her hair pulled up into a half-bun that left most of it to plunge thickly down her back. He could see Damon's influence in the darker tones and subtle embrace of her sex appeal. In addition to this slight shift in fashion, an unnamable quality surrounded them and Stefan knew that anyone who looked their way could tell they were together in an instant. Damon fed her a french fry after she finished giggling, then stole the olive from her martini. She grabbed his arm in protest but he wolfed it down before she could snatch it back.

"Fair is fair." Damon proclaimed as she playfully slugged his shoulder.

"You have a million fries, I had only one olive. You know I would have shared it with you…" Elena leaned in and whispered something Stefan could not hear. Damon looked over in surprise, then tenderness filled him as she started laughing again. He placed a leisurely kiss on her lips that ended in both their smiles. Stefan swallowed thickly, but it didn't hurt as much as he expected. It felt more like a dull throb rather than the stabbing pain that he remembered. His pain was a nearly healed scar now, not the gaping, festering wound that had plagued him for many months after he left. This Elena was so different from the one he had wanted to one day marry, everything down to the nuances in the way she moved told him that. That quality of _otherness_ that bloomed when she became a vampire had only intensified in the last two years.

"Hey." He made his presence known, tugging a smile onto his face that felt slightly, but not too much, out of place. They turned to see him, their twin eyes mirroring each other's expression.

"Stefan!" Elena slipped off her barstool and hugged him without hesitation. Damon patted his arm, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.

"Brother." Damon greeted him. "I see you still have the same hair." Damon commented, sweeping his gaze over the top of his head. "…Good choice." Damon suffered a little as he forced this out in response to Elena's expectant look. Stefan chuckled. Damon was Damon, no matter how different he sounded on the phone.

"How have you been?" Stefan asked, the stiffness that filled him upon entering the building displaced by the warm greetings.

"Oh, you know. Pretty good." Damon said, the understatement evident.

"We were just waiting for a table to open up." Elena scanned the room. "It's so packed here. Is there some sort of event that's bringing in tourists? I don't know half these people."

"It's the high school homecoming parade today. I think it's just the families that live out of town coming in for lunch before they go see their kids wave at them from a float." Stefan shrugged. He'd been back for a couple of days already, catching up with Caroline. She was a news reporter now so she knew everything that was going on in town.

"We literally just flew into Chicago five hours ago."

"You call that flying? More like we fell out of the sky and managed not to die."

"There was a little turbulence. He almost ate the pilot for it." Elena explained, grinning at Damon.

"I don't plan on testing the limits of our super-healing powers. I doubt we can reassemble ourselves if we blow up on impact." Damon defended himself. Stefan immediately wondered how Elena could joke so easily about Damon eating people. Had she really become a different person?

Elena, catching his change in attitude, quickly went on-

"He wouldn't have actually. We have a strict no-kill policy." Elena elaborated. Damon glanced at him. He shook his head, clicking his tongue as he pointed his thumb at her and whispered to Stefan.

"The wife has me on a short leash."

Elena glowered at him, a smile still hidden in the corners of her lips. _Wife. _Stefan was trying to absorb this easy, playful banter that they had perfected in his absence. Their happiness overwhelmed him; it was a hundred times more intense in person than the glimpses he had gotten over the phone.

"Catch us up, Stef. Have a drink. Sit." Damon sat down one barstool over than where he had sat, leaving a space open between him and Elena. Stefan was surprised and touched at the gesture.

"Another bourbon." Damon called to the bartender.

"Where did you fly in from?" Stefan asked as he sat gingerly between them.

"Seoul." Elena answered, a sparkle in her eyes. "The nightlife was crazy and the food was amazing."

"And she doesn't mean the people, though they were pretty tasty too."

"Great." Stefan said unenthusiastically.

"Stop teasing him, Damon. I still can't believe you haven't been to these places before this. 164 years? Really?" Elena leaned on her elbows as she peered past Stefan to address Damon.

"Flying is unnatural." Damon rolled his eyes. Stefan knew the real reason. _He never had anyone he wanted to enjoy it with. _That was the reason Stefan had never done many things as well.

"Did _you_ know he's terrified of flying…?" Elena asked Stefan in a low voice, actually curious. Damon growled.

"Um, no, we weren't exactly close for most of those 164 years, as you recall. Commercial airlines only came around in the late 1900's, when we didn't particularly get along." Stefan cleared his throat.

"What about you, Stefan? Did you ever take time out of brooding to duck into Korea?" Damon challenged.

"Once or twice." Stefan replied calmly.

"Driving another ambulance through the front lines of the war?" Damon cocked a brow.

"Something like that." Stefan said vaguely. Lexi had become briefly infatuated with k-pop over the late 90's and dragged him down there for one crazy week of dancing and exploration. He wasn't going to reveal that to them, though.

Elena lifted her hand to rest her chin. A sparkle caught his eye.

"You got… married?" He thought the _wife_ comment had been an ironic over exaggeration on Damon's part.

"Oh." Elena looked down at her ring, a beautiful design inlaid with diamonds and rubies, like she wasn't quite familiar with it yet. It replaced the blue ring he placed on her finger when she became a vampire. Bonnie had probably spelled it for Damon before he proposed. "Yeah, a while ago."

The dull ache throbbed. He felt dizzy. He glanced at Damon's left hand, and sure enough a simple gold band wrapped around his finger in place of the ring gifted to him by Emily Bennette all those years ago, Katherine's last token of affection.

"When's the anniversary?"

"As it turns out, vampires and homosexuals have one distinctly common cause. We're going to merge the rallies." Damon said. At their looks, he clarified, "We of course can't technically get married, but we had a really small ceremony in the Bahamas a year ago." Damon was a little cautious. "The anniversary is June 1st."

"You were trekking in the Himalayas for months, we couldn't reach you." Stefan put that part together when they confirmed the date. He wished Caroline had warned him. She probably assumed they told him already.

"Wow, congratulations." Stefan managed. Elena looked sympathetic as she rested her hand on his arm.

"Sorry we didn't tell you. We didn't know how to bring it up."

"I knew it was only a matter of time." Stefan said, consoling himself as well as Elena. It didn't hurt as much as he had feared, but every moment in their presence was surreal, like traveling through time. The ghost of their past suffering, his permanent memory of them as the people shrouded in tragedy and darkness was overlapping with this new, shiny, happy version. Damon and Elena, 2.0.

"Well, you seem happy. That makes me happy." Stefan said, a half-truth. She had given up what they had for something that made her so full of life, and that comforted him. At least it wasn't in vain, they had stayed together. He wasn't entirely sure that would happen.

They exchanged glances. Damon took a sip of bourbon. Silence.

"You smell… really good." Damon commented, off-hand. Elena shot him a weird look. "You smell like dinner." Damon's eyes, wide with wonder, rounded on him in surprise.

Stefan was silent. Elena's mouth fell open and she inspected him with renewed interest. Her eyes filled with tears.

"How?" She said, her voice breaking.

"I found it." Stefan said succinctly, but they definitely weren't going to let that be the end of the explanation. Stefan recounted the tale from six months ago when he had finally landed on something more promising than the wild-goose chases he had been following around the world. A shaman in Africa directed him to a hidden secret in the caves of the deep desert. He showed them the vial of glistening, milky liquid that Caroline had considered drinking this morning. She had to talk it over with Tyler first. He had contacted Bonnie's mother through Bonnie, but had yet to hear back.

Now all the options he had ever desperately wanted lay ahead of him.

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, Damon and I have a considerable amount of money left to us, as you know, so I'll probably use part of it to go to Medical School. I wanted to become a doctor before I was changed, and that was one goal that stayed constant in my long life."

Elena hugged him again, tears slipping occasionally from her eyes. Damon was slowly recovering from the shock.

"This is amazing. I'm so happy for you." Elena laughed through her tears.

"I'm off to start college for the last time in the fall."

"Where are you headed to this time?" Damon asked.

"Harvard, same as before."

"Well with 150+ years of experience in high school and college, I expect nothing less than summa cum laude." Damon sipped his bourbon, unimpressed.

"That's great, Stefan." Elena grinned. At a thought, her whole face lit up. "Oh, I'm going back too! I'm not going to Harvard, but there's this great liberal arts school in California that Damon made me send a writing sample to and I got in. I start this fall so we're moving out there." Damon's small smile as he watched her speak caught him off gaurd. There was so much warmth there, not at all like the gaurded, cautious brother he knew.

"Well that's on the other side of America, so I doubt I'll see you very often." Stefan smiled gently. That was probably for the best right now. "But I know you're going to do great things, Elena." Stefan turned to Damon. "What are you going to do while she's at school?"

"Well that's for me to know, and you to…dot dot dot. Remember?" Damon smirked. Elena spoiled the mystery.

"He has some big business plan he won't tell me about. Maybe you can charm it out of him." She shook her head.

"If you can't get it out of him, what makes you think I can? Business, huh? That actually makes a lot of sense. Manipulative and calculating, you'll fit right in." Stefan had to sneak in a little jab. Damon took it as a compliment.

"You likely don't know this, but I've made quite a fortune in the past in the business world. Had to pay for all the bourbon." Damon chuckled and took another swig from his glass.

The Grill had really begun to thin out while they were talking. They heard the parade noise start up outside, a cacophony of marching instruments.

"Should we go watch for old times sake? Maybe we'll recognize some of our younger classmates. I only graduated two years ago." Elena said, off of her barstool in a moment when they both agreed. Damon slipped a hand into hers like it was the most natural thing in the world. The look that passed between them seemed to seal over the last remnants of Stefan's healing wound. This was truly what was meant to be. This is what had to happen for the darkness to end, for daylight to peer over the mountains. Now all he could do was accept it and hope that lightning struck twice in one life so he could find the kind of love that lay bare in their eyes before him. Considering their unlikely journey, crazier things had happened. He would just have to keep an open eye and mind.

"Are you coming, Stefan?" Elena asked over her shoulder. Damon looked back. Stefan felt a smile touch his own face as at the sparkle in his brother's eyes, the first sincere smile in a long time. Damon returned the briefest of smiles, equally genuine.

Stefan slid off his stool and followed them out the door.

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**So far in the tv show itself I'm pretty pleased with how the sire bond is playing out, other than the constant mental and emotional agony for Damon which was fairly predictable. The writers are really pounding into Damon about the sire bond every chance they get, Klaus, Shane, Stefan of course... I think it's a bit much. But she's fighting for him, which is all we Delena fans can hope for I suppose. ****I'll concede that the ending for this epilogue is picturesque and cheezy, but I think we could all do with some cheeziness after the heartwrenching events on TVD lately. I, for one, am in desperate need of a happy ending for Delena.**


	18. Sequel Notice

**So they just made me re-read the rules to start a new story, and I'm pretty sure I'm already breaking them by uploading something that's just an author's note, but I wanted to let the reader's of this story know that I did take your suggestions and started a sequel! The name is Afterlife. You can find it on my profile if you want to read about Delena with a baby :D. ****Of course if you would rather imagine that Delena stay vampires, you have the option to ignore the sequel :P. ** Thanks for reading and hope I see your wonderful comments in the next story! 


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